God child
by Terrorofthedeath
Summary: Silveras, the one and only mage in Earth somehow managed to land himself in Thedas. He met up with Theron Mahariel, a Dalish elf and joined force with the chosen hero, Jayde Surana. With his friends' support, he found his purpose to live and the mystery behind his past...Slash, M/M, mpreg!
1. Chapter 1

**_CHAP 1: AWAKE IN NEW WORLD _**

_"Wake up, my child! Your destiny is await."_

A voice rang through his ear, shocked him into the land of living. He blinked, tried to understand what had happened to him. One minute he was in front of his computer to play his favorite game, Dragon Age and the next thing he knew was sudden darkness. He knew that he couldn't be simply passed out for the lack of food and sleep because otherwise he would be inside his room, face down on the floor not inside a make-shift tent. He tried to move, but then moaned softly at the pain shooting through his body.

_"No dream then. What am I gotten into this time?" _He thought wryly, unsurprised.

He was always an unusual child: lightning appear on his hands, objects moved around based on his will, his least favorite people sometimes transfigured into stone for hours. Even his parent thought he was a demon child and tried to get rid of him.

"It's good to see you awake, Falon."

An aged voice appeared in the thin air and he wiped his head around to find the newcomer. He stared in disbelief when an old woman moved next to him and started to examine his boneless body. He knew this woman, and he also knew that there no way that she should be in his world, if he could really call this world his world anymore. This is ridiculous. Marethari was just a NPC in Dragon Age, not a real person. Yet when he felt the warm hand rested on his forehead, he had no way but admit that this is real, and Marethari actually sat next to him.

"You're lucky when we saw you yesterday, otherwise you would have already died." Maretheri said softly

"Err…well" He cleared his throat "Ma serannas, keeper, for saving me."

Marethari was taken back when she heard the elvish language came from a human, but she quickly recovered, and gave him a warm smile.

"You're welcome, Falon. I must admit, I didn't expect to hear elven language from your kind. May I asked where did you learn it from?"

"I was raised by a Dalish." He lied smoothly "She was the one who taught me all the Dalish custom."

"I see." Marethari nodded, then said "There is something that I wish to ask you, Falon, if you kindly answer for me."

"Please, just call me Silveras, and I would happily answer your question." He said. Well, Silveras wasn't his real name, though Silver was technically his pet name. In this forsaken world, it would be better if he played his card close to his chest.

"Silveras, then. Three days ago, our hunters, Theron and Tamlen were missing. When we came to find them, a large lightning appeared from the sky and stroke down in the earth, where we found Theron alongside with you unconscious on the ground while Tamlen was nowhere to be founded. Theron claimed that they found a mysterious ruin and they went inside to investigate it. All that he saw was a mirror and then nothing. I thought that since you was there nearby, you must know what had happened to our missing clanmate."

Silveras stared, unsure what to say. In the origin, Duncan supposed to save Theron Mahariel and gave him the chance to become a Grey Warden, but it seemed that this timeline Theron was not the chosen hero. About Tamlen, well Marethari was right about him knowing about Tamlen's fate, yet he wondered if he should be truthful about it. What if Maretheri then question how he appeared next to Mahariel? He didn't wanted to give Marethari any reason to distrust of him. Getting yourself an enemy in this forsaken land when you didn't know if you could go back was a very stupid thing to do, especially when the enemy was also a key for the future in Kirkwall.

"I do not know for sure." He decided to tell a half truth "But if I have to guess he was probably somewhere in the Deep Road, since I was there when the Eluavian was evoked. "

"The deep road?" Marethari frowned, looked extremely sad and resigned "Then we truly have no hope in saving him."

"I'm sorry, I know that he probably lost somewhere in the deep road but why do you think he couldn't be save? The dwarf could have saved him for all I know." Silveras said, knowing all the truth but trying to feign ignorance toward Mahariel and Tamlen's so called illness.

"Even so, he would not survive without proper treatment. Even my magic can barely weaken your and my hunter's decease. If Tamlen was as ill as you two, I really fear for the worst."

"I see…wait, what?" He gasped at Marethari, his voice shaken "What do you mean I have a decease?"

"You do not know?" Marethari frowned "Do you really feel well? Can you reach your magic now?"

"I am what now?" Silveras really wanted to scream, yet somehow couldn't, since he always expect himself to be one. Expecting is one thing, knowing the truth is entirely another thing, however.

"You don't know you are a mage?" Marethari looked surprised "Back when we saw the lightning, it came from you, Falon. It protected you and Theron from harm of the dark ones until we arrive."

Silveras blinked, and blinked. He didn't remember anything like that and he sure as hell couldn't control his lightning ability when he was unconscious. Just what the hell was going on?

"It seem that I may lost some of my memories." He said finally "I don't really recall anything about me using magic to save me and your hunter."

"Then do you remember anything about you using your magic in general?"

"It was…vague." He lied "I always travel with a mage so I just assume that it was my companion doing. Still, when you speak about that, I might recall some incidents."

"I see." Marethari looked at him tentatively "It's rare to see an untrained mage who manage to keep his magic in place like you. With training, you would be very powerful."

"Ma serannas, Keeper, for your praise." He smiled politely, pausing for a moment to gather his thought.

He had two choices to decide right now. He could left Theron here to death just like in DA:O, or he could save him and dragged him into the fate that shouldn't have been for him. Saving him did have some promising merits. Firstly, the Grey Wardens in Ferelden were in shortage of recruitment, so anyone who had a skill in fighting is welcomed among them. Furthermore, with two additional Grey Wardens, the Blight would be slightly easier to breathe for Alistair and other companions. Secondly, he didn't know the road to reach Ostagar, and he was in dire need of a guide tour as well as protector in Thedas (of course the first reason is also important, just not as important as the second one).

"Keeper."

A high pitch and slightly childish voice rang through his ear, the violent one as he recalled, and he saw a black-haired elf came into the tent. He was tall, but feminine. His eyes were dark blue, yet they didn't look warm or welcoming. No, his eyes was tense and full of grief.

"This must be Mahariel." He thought, stared at the weary young man. He didn't know how old Mahariel was, but he knew that right now the man looked no more than a lost child.

"Da'len." Marethari said softly, gently hugged Mahariel close. "I take that you two can't find Tamlen."

"I searched everywhere. I thought that when we reached the eluvian, we might have found a trail of Tamlen, but it had been already broken."

Broken? Silveras frowned, yet not concerned. The blasted mirror can be blown into pieces for all he care.

"So there is no hope then." Marethari sighed sadly, gently caressed Mahariel's hair "I'm sorry, da'len. I know that you and Tamlen were very close."

"He's not dead." Mahariel said fiercely, but his eyes gave away his fear and uncertainty. "I'll find him."

"Even so, it would be too late. You almost died that day if it wasn't for my magic, Da'len. Even so, I could only slow it down. Now, I know you don't want to believe it, but we should make Tamlen a proper funeral before we depart. Please, tell Paivel to prepare a funeral."

"I…yes, Keeper." Mahariel finally said, defeated.

Marethari then turned to him, said softly.

"I'm sorry, Silveras. He was still grieving for his lost friend."

"I take that he's Theron." Silveras said.

"Yes, he is. He was one of our best hunters, yet I fear that the unknown decease hold within his body will weaken him."

_"Or worse, dead."_ Silveras thought wryly. He cleared his throat and said, rather charmingly

"Keeper, if I may say, I believe I have a solution for his…our decease."

"You have?" Marethari looked at him, stunned and hoped filled her eyes. It seemed that Mahariel did have a special place in her heart.

"I don't know about me, but judging the look of him, I think that both of us were tainted by darkspawn blood."

"Darkspawn?" Marethari asked warily "Are you sure? We haven't found any darkspawn near here yet. How could…"

"Did Theron told you that he fought a giant beast deep inside the ruin?" Silveras interrupted "I saw that beast, it was infested by darkspawn blood and probably gave its decease toward us by its bite and blood."

Hence, that was not the real reason, but he couldn't say that the mirror was the main reason why they were tainted by darkspawn blood, because if so, why the hell was he infested? It's not like he came through the mirror, right?

_"…now I'm babbling. I really should stop that."_

"Theron did tell me about the beast, but…" a sigh "A darkspawn taint is something very serious. If what I thought was right, then you intend to lead Theron to the Grey Warden?"

_"Ah hell, why did she know that…never mind, should have known she knew. She was an old acquaintance of Duncan after all."_

"Yes." Silveras nodded "It is the best solution that I can give right now."

"But do the Grey Warden really accept Theron? He is a Dalish, and not many humans welcome us."

"As far as I know, the Grey Wardens are in dire need of recruitment right now, and someone who had skill in fighting is welcome among them." Silveras shrugged "besides, I have something to bargain with them."

"I see. Very well, I will leave you to rest for now, Falon. Theron needs to be informed of this situation."

"Yes keeper." Sliveras nodded, waited until Marethari out of sight did he finally released a breath and slummed down on his bedroll.

_"This is madness."_ He thought miserably.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2: That elf is a pain in ass**

"NO."

It's the third time today, and even Silveras was amazed at the sheer stubborn of Mahariel. The Dalish elf knew what to expect if he keep staying like this, yet he refused to leave the clan and find a way to survive. Loyalty or stupidity? He honestly didn't know. Maybe he should come outside and persuade the bad-tempered elf, since he knew that his eardrum could not take any more shierking from the dalish elf. He got up from his bedroll, wincing at the shooting pain now his abdomen and limped outside. In the middle of the camp, Mahariel was standing there crossed his arms defiantly. He was surrounded by his clanmates who were trying, and falling to convince him to follow the shemlen. Marethari stood next to a young woman with a staff on her hand (_"so this is Merril" _he thought) and looked at Mahariel pointly:

"You must understand, da'len. This is for your own good. It pains me to drive you away from us but we want you to live."

"I don't care. This is my clan, I'm not going everywhere." Mahariel snarled, his eyes blazing. Silveras grimaced when he saw that, knowing that it would be a pain in ass in persuading the stubborn elf.

"Da'len, this is not your choice. You are very illed and I will not let you die if I could help it." Marethari scolded.

"So you abandoned me." Mahariel said, hurted and pain clear in his eyes. Silveras knew that he had to talk fast before it could be anymore worse.

"It is not abandonment, but a chance for you to get your revenge."

All the clan now turned their attention toward him, which was rather unnerving, yet he remained calm.

"This is not your business, shemlen." Mahariel said harshly, his anger radiated toward him. It was funny, actually, to see a furious elf looked so fluttered and adorable, like an enraged kitten.

"Isn't it? I was there, and I also was tainted like you so I think this is my business as much as your." He said, crossed his arms "And I see no reason why you refuse this arrangement. Do you really want Tamlen's death in vain?"

"DON'T TALK TO HIM LIKE THAT." Mahariel roared, bounced on him. Silveras choked a little at the heavy weight pressed on his side, but he refuse to step down.

"Tamlen died so that you could live." He snarled "and you repay him by being a dick head and waste your life away?"

Mahariel frozed at mid-punch when he heard what Silveras had said. No matter how he denied it, he knew deep inside that if it weren't for Tamlen, he would be the one who died. Encouraged by Mahariel's lack of response, Silveras continued:

"If you was to live, why don't make your life useful? After all, don't you want to revenge for your clanmate?"

Mahariel stared at him, trying to see throught Silveras's mask, and when he didn't see anything, he scowled and stood up, muttered:

"Fine, I'll go, but you'd better be right about those Grey Wardens."

"I swear on my life." Silveras said truthfully, and thought _"because I couldn't escape death either way if there wasn't a cure."_

It took three more days for Silveras to recover. During these days, the blond-haired man pestered the keeper with thousands of questions about how to control his magic (so that he could compare his own knowledge about using magic) and the spell that she use to weaken his and Mahariel's decease. While the keeper was more than welcomed to teach him some of her tricks, she was often pulled back by her first, Merrill. He didn't know why but he got a feeling that the soon-t-be blood mage didn't like him at all.

Silveras stayed with the Marethari's clan for about two more days before he and Mahariel departed. The day they left, everyone in the clan gathered around Mahariel to say goodbye. Ashelle, the woman who had raised Mahariel for all those years smother the young elf with hug and asked Silveras to take good care of him (which made him get a death glare from said elf). Keeper Marethari gave Mahariel a small locket as a reminder of the clan and gave Silveras some advices about the spell to weaken their decease. After that, they were ready to depart.

Mahariel had been in a sour mood since the day they fought, and it was worse when they left the clan. The young elf brooded during the journey, and when Silveras asked him what was wrong Mahariel immediately snapped at him to mind his own business. All in honesty, Silveras was wondering how long he could take before he snapped and gave the young brat a piece of his mind. He might not be as strong as Mahariel but he was a mage for goddamn sake and he could easily turned that bratling into stone for few hours. (Pity he didn't know how to turn someone into toad. Alistair did have some great ideas after all).

"Well, are you going to eat?" Silveras asked.

They were camping at the Brecilian outskirt, near Lothering and two days away from Ostagar. The past few days were very fortunate for them not to meet any hostile creatures besides a couple of wolf and beast. Mahariel did his job very well as Silveras's protector, though the elf always said that he would prefer to die than leaving the killing job for an untrained mage (If Silveras hadn't seen how Mahariel interact with others mage like marethari or Merrill, he would have thought this was Fenris the Second). While Mahariel appeared to be fine, Silveras couldn't help but worry for the Dalish. The elf hadn't sleep since he departed the clan and now he didn't want to eat either. If it kept going, Silveras feared that Mahariel would die before he even reached Ostagar.

"Mind your own business." Mahariel snapped, his handsome face twisted up in annoyance.

Silveras sighed, rubbed his forehead. He put his own dish down and said:

"Right, obviously you don't like me. That's fine. However, you need to eat, you haven't eaten for a day and this didn't help for your health at all. After you eat, you can brood for all your heart content but now I need you to eat to catch up your strength."

"Who are you to order me around, shemlen?" Mahariel snarled.

"I will not say again, Theron. Eat, or I will force you to." Silveras threatened.

"Fuck you."

"Your choice." Silveras said, gathered his mana to turn the Dalish's lower half into stone. Mahariel was starled when he found that nothing on his body besides his head obeyed his command. He widened his eyes when the shemlen in front of use some kind of magic to take away all of his weapon. He yelped:

"You can use magic? But keeper…"

"Well, I lied." Silveras shrugged, picked up a dish of food and stalked toward the bounded elf. "Here, opened your mouth."

Mahariel glared at him furiously, his jaws clenched tightly, refused to accept defeat from a human, especially this human. Silveras frowned, sighed frustratedly at the proud elf and used a more physical force to make Mahariel to eat. In the end, half of Mahariel food was on Silveras's face and tunic, Mahariel was sulking like a child in front of the fire, still bounded since Silveras decided it would be an effective punishment for the elf. That, and the fact that the man didn't trust Mahariel not to bounce on him right after the mage released him.

After a well-deserved bath, Silveras finally returned to the small camp, noticed that the Dalish elf was starting to doze up. It seemed that the fight between him and Silveras had worn him up. The sight was so endearing that Silveras couldn't help but chuckled, shaking his head. He asked:

"Sleepy now?"

"Release me." Mahariel murmured in his sleepy voice.

Silveras unbounded Mahariel, helped him to lied down on his bedroll since the elf probably had a cramp for staying in one position for a long time. The Dalish curled up and sighed contently, already in deep slumber.

The sleep, however, was not last long. Somewhere around two or three am, Silveras was rudely awakened by a piercing scream, followed by a frantic thrashing from an elf across him. He sat up quickly, rubbed his eyes furiously to clear his view and stumbled toward the Dalish elf. He caught some words like "Tamlen" and "don't" and realized what had happened. It seemed that Mahariel had a nightmare about what happened to Tamlen and himself.

"Theron? Theron! Wake up." Silveras shook his shoulder furiously, roughly wake Mahariel from the agony nightmare. Even so, his eyes remained blank and fearful until he could make a gasp of who had stood in front of him.

"Silveras?" Mahariel murmured, his face looked so worn and tired.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Yeah and I'm andraste's whore." Silveras retorted, and smiled when he heard a faint snort coming from Mahariel. He pulled the young elf up, and settled him against his shoulder. He whispered:

"Would it be better if I stay with you during your sleep?"

"I don't need babying." Mahariel tried to glare, but failed miserably.

"I'm not babying you. I just know that having someone nearby make you sleep easier." Silveras said.

Mahariel scoffed in disbelief but was too tired to protest against the idea so he settled next to Silveras, once again dozing off. Looked at the small form, Silveras couldn't help but snorted in amusement. Sometimes, Mahariel behaved so much like him that if it weren't for the fact he was an elf, Silveras would have thought he was his long lost brother.

_"A stubborn, aggressive but adorable brat of brother."_ He mused, closed his eyes. There were two more day to Ostagar and maker forbid, he would need all the rest he can.

The next two day became a pain in the ass for Silveras. Mahariel was even more insufferable and still stubborn as hell about his eating and sleeping order. Twice a day Silveras had to hold him down and stuffed the food down into his throat, and once he need to use a sleep spell (thank you very much, Keeper Marethari) on him so that he could get a good night sleep. One good thing in this whole mess was that Mahariel was so focus on defying him that he didn't have time to grief over Tamlen anymore. He now no longer broody but still sulking and acted like a hormone teenager rather than a grown up.

Finally, they reached their destination.

Both Silveras and Mahariel looked at the front gate in wonder. They never went to Ostagar before (alright, Silveras had but that was in game) and this looked fascinating. Ostagar was larger than he thought and heavily guarded.

"Hold. State your business." The guard in front of the front gate stopped them on their track.

"I'm here to see the warden commander." Silveras said smoothly

"Why do you want to see the warden commander?" The other guard looked suspiciously at him "You are not in the army."

"I was ordered from the wardens in Orlais to…deliver an important letter regard about the darkspawn."

"Don't know what those Orlesians want but the warden commander isn't here. He has gone to find new recruit for the warden. If you want to meet him, you have to wait."

"I see. Thank you for your information. We will camp nearby and wait for the warden commander." Silveras smiled pleasantly, his mind ran wide in thought. Duncan hadn't returned with his new recruit yet, which mean the battle in Ostagar was nowhere around this time. He still had times to gather information and decide what to do next.

"Why did we have to camp outside?" Mahariel complained.

"The army is in tense situation now. They would not let two strangers come inside their main base that easily." Silveras explained. "Now be a dear for me and catch some food. You are the best hunter in your clan, no?"

Mahariel scoffed, stomped off petulantly. He was still mad at him for forcing him to sleep last night right after his nightmare even though it help him to stay awake at day. Doesn't matter. Right now Silveras had something more important to deal with. First, the joining. Silveras knew that Mahariel would not have any problem in surviving the joining since technically he was one of six supposed candidate to be a hero. No, the problem is that he didn't know if he himself could manage to survive or not. He was an outsider, a mere stranger who happened to know the future of Thedas. He would not be arrogant enough not to believe that he would never die in this world. As fas as he concerned, the day he transported to this place is the day he commited to the most painful and agony death if he hadn't been careful. Second, the coming battle. While he knew that Loghain betrayed Cailan and his army, Silveras didn't know that if it was planned before or just recently, but decided to stay back and watch until he could make a gasp about who Loghain was exactly. The final thing he should be worry about is the Hawke. He knew that Carver Hawke was somewhere inside that camp but he wondered if he could give that young man a warning. Their family would be arrive to Kirkwall safe and sound with both the twin alive if they ran away earlier than the game. The only problem was that how to persuade Carver without making himself like an insane apostate that need to be put down.

He broke his musing when Mahariel came back, blink rapidly at the enormous sack on his shoulder and a bunch of tree branch on his arm.

"What's that?" Silveras asked as Mahariel threw the sack onto the ground.

"Clothes and some poultices." Mahariel said, started to set up a fire pit "and some extra money."

"And where did you get all of this?"

"I have my way." The elf said smugly.

Silveras raised his eyebrow, and shook his head. If he had to guess, he would bet that Mahariel had somehow managed to sneak inside the army's camp and making havoc inside. He was one of the best hunters in Marethari's clan after all, and the most sneaky one if he wanted to be.

_"Sneaky huh?"_ Silveras mused, a rather wicked plan started to form inside his head.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3: THE CHOSEN HERO**

Silveras and Mahariel had camped outside Ostagar for a week before Duncan and the chosen hero showed their appearance.

"Silveras, there's someone coming." Mahariel warned, shook Silveras out of his mediation. The Dalish elf had warmed up to the human somewhat, enough to call his name without sounding cross.

"I see."

Silveras opened his eyes, looked warily at the shadow started to merge into his sight. During the past few days, they had to drive back bandits, animals from the wild and some of the infested creature. Those enemies helped Silveras a lot in controlling and manipulating magic (it turned out he really good at entropy magic), but they would be sooner overwhelmed by the enemies if they didn't find somewhere safe to hide. To make it worse, the decease inside Silveras and Mahariel started to act up. The spell keeper Marethari use to weaken the deceases was disappearing and Silveras was not experienced enough to cast the same spell, only able to make it last longer. It would be a matter of time before they succumbed before the decease.

Then a man started to appear. He had a tanned skin, his eyes was black and weary, and his face was covered with beard. He wore something looked similar to robes but have light armor attracted at the arms and torso.

_"Duncan."_ Silveras breathed, stared at the man who would sacrifice himself willingly for the greater good. Silveras always had a strong respect for the older man and to see him face to face was like a dream came true.

"Don't worry. He's who we're supposed to meet." Silveras said to Mahariel.

"That's the warden commander?" Mahariel narrowed his eyes, looked at Duncan "He's strong."

Silveras blinked at Mahariel, then shrugged. He was surprised that Mahariel admitted someone strong, since it means that that one could easily beat Mahariel in a single combat, but then again, he shouldn't be so surprised. They were talking to Duncan, the man that even in his death still managed to scare the darkspawns shitless.

"Easy, friend. We're not a threat." Silveras shouted loudly, enough for Duncan to hear his words. "We're sent from keeper Marethari to ask you a favour."

Duncan frowned, looked calculatively at the two of them before beckoned someone behind him to follow. Not until they near Silveras and Mahariel's camp did he saw who Duncan had been protecting.

It was a petite elf, smaller than Mahariel, and looked around the age of seventeen or eighteen. He had a short bright red hair, big blue eyes and light skin. On his forehead and below left eyes was a silver tattoo which made him more pure and innocent than intimidating. He wore a dark color robes with a staff clutched firmly on his hands.

_"So Surana is our supposed hero this time, huh?"_ Silveras thought _"I wonder which school of magic was he good at?"_

"I believe you own me an explanation, young man." Duncan said sternly, yet not unkind "you're saying that keeper Marethari sent you two for me, yet I see unlike this young man over there, you're no elf."

"Of course, warden commander. Let me introduce myself, first. I am Silveras and that's Theron Mahariel." Silveras said charmingly "And about why keeper Marethari send us to you, it's a long story."

Then Silveras processed to tell Duncan all the thing he had carefully planned to tell and what left unsaid. Mahariel looked bored and started to check Surana up and down just as Surana did to him, though the mage looked more curious then bored.

"I see." Duncan nodded "However, you must know that being a grey warden is not some kind of game. We do not effort to randomly recruit…"

"I'm a mage." Silveras beat him in the bush "and my friend Theron here is the best hunter in his clan, the most sneaky one, too. Why, he had just sneaked inside your army camp twice without being busted."

Duncan raised his eyebrow when he heard Silveras bragged about their skills. On the other side, Mahariel blushed lightly and scowled at Silveras. The elf was rather disgruntled that his stealth could not fool Silveras.

"You're a mage?"Surana looked interested when he heard that the human talking to Duncan was also a mage like him.

Instead of answering, Silveras simply called out a bolt of lightning appeared on his hand, which caught Surana's full attention. He smiled and called out a very similar bolt of lightning, though it was a lot stronger than him. The elf said sweetly with his sultry voice:

"I'm Jayde Surana, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Jayde." Silveras nodded politely, turned to look at Duncan. The warden commander right now looked rather pleased with the skills the two young man in front of him shown. Judging by the slightly battered look on Mahariel, Silveras guessed that the Dalish elf had declared a fight toward Duncan and lost miserably.

"Very well, I welcome you two, Silveras and Theron, into our ranks. Ferelden is in dire need of new grey wardens right now and with hope we will have two or three more new grey warden tonight for the upcoming battle."

"With hope?" Mahariel raised his eyebrow skeptically "I don't like to hear the sound of that."

"Don't worry, Theron, the worst scenario is that we will die, either from the decease or from the joining." Silveras shrugged.

"And that should comfort me?" Mahariel scowled.

"You don't have any choice Theron, either you join the grey warden willingly, be alive and take your revenge on the darkspawn, or I will force you join the grey warden myself." Silveras said lightly, though there were an edge in his voice.

Mahariel scoffed, but knew better than arguing. He had noticed that Silveras could be aggressive if he wanted to be.

"You seem to know a lot about our joining." Duncan asked Silveras warily. While his instinct told him that this man could be trust, but he also knew that no one outside the Grey Wardens knew how much a risk in the joining could be. This young man was too mysterious, it made him weary.

"I know many thing, warden commander, but nothing can prepare me for this." Silveras said tiredly. He was worried about the joining. He knew that Mahariel would a half a chance to survive the ritual, but he doubt he would pass the test without having some kind of dumb luck and superpower. And he had neither of them.

"I know." Duncan nodded.

"Say, you're an apostate, right? I didn't see you in the circle." Surana asked curiously "How is an apostate's life? How did you learn your magic?"

"Actually, I was only told that I'm a mage about a month ago. About learning magic, it just comes to me, I guess."

"I see." Surana nodded while Duncan and Mahariel both looked surprised "Well, which school of magic are you good at?"

"Well, I…" Silveras was rudely interrupted by a loud exclaim.

"Ho there, Duncan."

King Cailan along with his lackeys walked toward the four of them. Cailan was a tall young man with blond hair and an easy-going smile on his face. He wore the familiar shiny armor with a bastard sword at his back. Duncan looked starled upon seeing the king:

"King Cailan." He shook Cailan's hand in greeting "I didn't expect a-"

"A royal welcome?" Cailan grinned boyishly "I was beginning to worry you'd miss all the fun."

Silveras raised his eyebrow. When he first played Dragon Age, he thought that Cailan was nothing but an attention seeker, but now meeting him face to face, he couldn't help but slowly rethink his opinion toward him. Cailan might have fooled everyone with his bright smile, but Silveras still noticed that the king had secretly let out a small breath when he saw the warden commander came back from his journey, which means Cailan was still vigilant enough despite his optimistic nature.

"Not if I could help it, your majesty." Duncan said with his deep reassuring voice. It seemed that Silveras was not the only one who noticed Cailan's relief.

The said man only bumped the warden commander's shoulder playfully and said rather proudly:

"Then I'll have the mighty Duncan at my side in battle after all. Glorious."

Mahariel let out a disbelief snort, made Silveras smack him lightly in warning. The snort, however, did not go unnoticed to the king. Cailan turned his head toward the three of them, his eyebrow raised high. He asked:

"The other wardens told me you'd found a promising recruit. So which one is he?"

"He's the one on the left. Though the other two are also my new recruits, your majesty."

"Three new recruits? You certainly outdone yourself, my friend." Cailan grinned pleasantly. He turned his attention to the new recruits, surprisingly not at Surana but at the scowling Mahariel.

"Hello there, friend. Might I know your name?"

"I have nothing to say with you, human lord." Mahariel said scornfully.

"I'm sorry for his rudeness, your majesty." Silveras said hurriedly before Duncan could open his mouth to scold the Dalish elf. He couldn't effort letting Duncan had a bad impression toward the two of them now. "Allow me to introduce you, your majesty-"

"There's no need to be so formal, my friend." Cailan said off-handedly, still stared at Mahariel "We'll be shedding blood together, after all."

_"Not for long, if Loghain's treachery was allowed to happen." _Silveras thought, but still smiled pleasantly

"Thank you for your kindness, king Cailan. I'm Silveras. The one who stands next to me is Jayde Surana and the Dalish elf just spoke to you is Theron Mahariel."

"Theron Mahariel?" Cailan murmured "a good name for a skilled rogue."

"Too bad you are not good enough for a king to deserve your name Cailan then." Theron said mockingly.

"Theron, need I remind you that you're speaking to the king- "Duncan reprimanded him sharply

"It's fine, Duncan. He's probably still upset about our last encounter." Cailan said winningly at the Dalish elf, made his face had an interesting combination between blushing and scowling. "Allow me to be the first to welcome you to Ostagar. The wardens will benefit greatly with you three in their ranks."

"You're too kind, your majesty." Silveras smiled politely.

Cailan nodded, reluctantly turned his face to Duncan "I am sorry to cut this short, but I should return to my tent. Loghain waits eagerly to bore me with his strategies."

Cailan's tone toward Loghain was less welcomed than Silveras expected for someone who had a complete trust toward the hero of River Dane. It made Silveras wonder if Cailan was somewhat suspicious of Loghain's motive toward Ostagar.

"Your uncle sends his greetings and reminds you that Redcliffe forces could be here in less than a week." Duncan informed.

"Hah! Eamon just wants in the glory. We've already won three battles against these monster and tomorrow should be no different." Cailan said confidently.

"I didn't realize things were going so well." Surana said quietly, looked deep in thought.

"I'm not even sure this is a true Blight." Cailan said wearily, hiding behind the mask of smiling king. He glanced back up at the ruins. "There are plenty of darkspawns in the fields, but alas…no sight of an archdemon."

"Disappointed, your majesty?" Duncan asked. There was an edge in his voice.

"I'd hope for a war in the tales…You know, a king riding with the fabled Grey Wardens against a tainted god. But I supposed this will have to do." He looked at the four of them for the last time before he said "Now I must go before Loghain sends out a search party. Farewell, Grey Warden."

Duncan and Silveras bowed at the retreating form of the king, but Mahariel still stood proudly and glared at the Cailan's head while Surana stilled looked deep in thought.

"He sounds like he wanted a blight to happen." Silveras commented when Cailan was out of earshot.

"I must remind you that he's a king—"Duncan said tiredly "What the king said is true. They've won three battle in the row."

"Yet, you didn't sound reassured." Surana said

"Truth." Duncan nodded, leaded them across the damaged bridge. "Despite the victories, the darkspawn horde grows larger. Sooner or later, we would be outnumbered. I wanted to ask king Cailan to call for reinforcement, but I do not want to make such a fuss when there is no real proof this is the blight. King Cailan had done everything he can as our ally. I cannot ask him to act solely on my feelings."

"He could if he wasn't such a fool." Mahariel scoffed.

"Theron." Silveras said warningly. They would have a serious talk later "The king is…overconfident with his ability but he is also one of the few allies to the Grey Wardens. If there is truly a blight, his support would help us a great deal."

"What Silveras said is truth." The warden commander said "Some of the fereldens don't really trust us. We need to watch ourselves carefully in this camp, not being disrespected toward the ones who kindly help us during the battles."

Mahariel flushed, and nodded glumly. At least he knew that he was at fault here.

"Now, I have something else to arrange. Feel free to explore the camp. Once you finish, go find Alistair and return to me."

"A hot meal first would be nice." Surana quipped, rubbed his belly. Duncan chuckled and nodded, bid them goodbye.

"Alright, what's going on with you and the king?" Silveras asked after making sure Duncan was out of earshot.

"Nothing." Mahariel grumbled "that man is just an ass."

"Well, the king looks like he's completely smitten to you." Surana laughed softly, ignored the guards' horrified look. Judging the blushing look on Mahariel's face, Surana's word had nailed him right on the spot.

"My dear Theron. Is there something that you hide from me?" Silveras wiggled his eyebrow. "After all, weren't you the one who sneaked into the army at night last three days?"

"I don't know that you're talking about." Mahariel scowled "nor will I waste my time talking pointlessly to the two of you."

With that being said, Mahariel quickly bolted from the interrogating looks from Silveras and Surana, blushing furiously. Silveras snorted in amusement and turned to Surana:

"Now we have time for ourselves before the dreadful joining, what do you intend to do?"

"Explore around I guess." Surana shrugged "Though I probably head to the kennels. I've never seen one."

"Okay, then. I will meet you later." Silveras said politely and parted away.

He half-heartedly wanted to find Mahariel but he doubted the Dalish elf would appreciate him stopping the Dalish from brooding. Maybe he should go and meet Wynne. The old woman was, after all, their companion-to-be and a fellow mage. She would give him a lot of advice in using magic. Silveras might have already had natural ability to manipulative his power by his own will, he still found the magic in Thedas fascinating and wanted to learn more.

Wynne was standing near the magi camp, across the merchant and next to a crowd of militias praying under Andraste's name. She was … not quite old as Silveras tended to think, somewhere around middle age maybe, but definintely not old.

"Hello, young man. How may I help you?" Wynne asked warmly when she saw an unknown stranger coming toward to her.

"Pardon me, I heard that you're one of the enchanters from Circle. I'm hoping that you could give me some advices in using magic." Silveras said.

"Ahh, I heard that there is a mage from the Circle joining the Grey Warden. I guess that he is you." Wynne smiled motherly "You must be proud. Duncan is not an easy man to impress."

"I'm a new recruit, but I'm not from the Circle." Silveras shook his head "The mage in the Circle is now with the kennels. He wanted to know what the mabari is liked."

"You're not from the Circle?" Wynne frowned, her welcoming smile flattered "You're an apostate, then? Who taught you magic?"

"No one." Silveras said "I managed to control it somewhat but I'm hoping that you as a trained mage from the Circle could help me."

"Of course I would help you." Wynne said gently "Come with me, then."

"Thank you, lady…"

"Just call me Wynne, child." The elder mage said, lead him somewhere big enough for his private lesson.

The lesson lasted for about two hours when Mahariel appeared to pull him off for the meeting at Duncan's place. They met Surana at near the merchant, who was happily chatting with a dirty blond hair warrior with big goofy grin on his face. The warrior was tall, but no taller than Silveras and he looked familiar to Cailan, since they are half-brothers after all.

_"So that's our chantry boy, huh?"_ Silveras grinned impishly. He didn't know why, but he felt that he had a very close connection to Alistair, making him want to tease the poor chantry boy silly (which he only did to someone close to him).

"Hey, guys."Surana smiled upon seeing his fellow recruits, waved them over "This is Alistair, our new mabari."

Surana's word made both Silveras and Alistair choked, one was busy laughing his head off while the other just gasping at Surana as if he had said something beyond his knowledge.

"Good to see that you're not only a mage but also have a good sense of humour." Alistair said sarcastically, looked slightly hurt.

"Well you did look cute with your puppy pout." Surana laughed slightly.

"Yeah, well…" Alistair blushed, and looked utterly embarrassed with the flirting "I'm supposed to lead you to where Duncan need to see us. If we're in luck, we'll manage to find the other two recruits, too."

"I found Daveth and Jory." Mahariel piped up "They must be at Duncan's fire right now."

"And what did you do to them, my dear Theron?" Silveras raised his eyebrow.

"Why do you think you I will do anything to them?" Mahariel scowled deeply.

"You're the one who threatened to gut the quartermaster if he dared to speak to any elf with disrespect." Surana said amusedly.

"He did that?" Alistair stared at Mahariel with wide eyes.

"That shem deserved that." Mahariel said stubbornly "And just for you know, I didn't do anything to those two shemlen even though they probably deserve being thrashed."

"We'll see, then." Silveras shook his head fondly at the dalish elf and followed Alistair back to Duncan.

As expected, the warden commander stood there with his arms crossed in front of the fire. Next to him was two tall figures who Silveras recognized as the two new recruits Daveth and Jory. Daveth was shorter than the two person stood on two side of him, and he had…a black eye? Jory was as bald as ever, and …wait, since when Jory was bald? As far as he knew, Jory still had some hair on his head, not like a shiny globe right now.

"Are you sure you didn't do anything?" Alistair said, his mouth twitching "Because to me it seems that they had somehow angered a mabari and pay the price."

"Ah yes, the big bad mabari disguised as a short tempered Dalish elf." Silveras said dramatically "Just wait until the darkspawns heard about this. I'm sure they will piss their pants right now."

"You two are strange, even for human." Surana shook his head fondly while Mahariel just smiled smugly.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4: THE JOINING**

Silveras was worried, no scratch that, he was bloody hysterical.

He had fought bandits, wolves, and even stranger beast but nothing could give him such a sick like those darkspawn. The smell of rotten flesh nearly made him throw up everything he had eaten and the blood made his skin burnt. He managed to hide behind Alistair and Mahariel most of the journey but sometimes one or two darkspawn found their way to him, which caused him to panic and started to fire Lightning bolts around.

"First time, huh?" Alistair asked sympathetically "I was like you when I saw the darkspawn first time, too. Horrible creature, that one."

Not trusting himself to speak without throwing up, Silveras nodded. They were somewhere in the Kocari wild now, supposedly found four vials of darkspawn blood and a goddamn old treaties. The blood had already required, but the treaties was still nowhere in sight. It seemed that Surana had a terrible sense of direction.

"We should take a little rest." Surana said "Daveth, since you are not injured, would you please scouting the area? I need to heal the wound on Theron's arm and Jory's head. Alistair, Silveras help me."

Silveras nodded, pulled the injured Mahariel up and half-carried, half-dragged him to the abandoned camp near there. If he remembered correctly, there was a hidden box somewhere around here for the Jetta in Redcliffe. Maybe he could find it and delivered it to the poor woman later.

"Silveras, do you hear me?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Silveras quickly turned his eyes toward the scowling elf, who was rather pale from blood loss.

"Help me get this blast arrow out of my arm." Mahariel gritted his teeth "or so help me you will be a dead meat when I'm done with you."

"All right." The human mage nodded rectulantly, gave Mahariel a clean cloth so that he could bit at it if the pain was too much. He carefully hold on the top the arrow and pulled firmly out of Mahariel's skin. The blood spurted out and Mahariel let out a small grunt of pain, his breath swallow. Based on the dark color of the blood, Silveras guessed that the arrow was poisoned, not enough to kill Mahariel but still can be a pain in ass.

"Stay still for a moment, Theron." Silveras murmured. He used another clean cloth to tie Mahariel's arm tightly so the poisoned blood couldn't flow back to his heart. "Jayde, are you done? Theron needs your help."

"One moment." Surana said softly, a blue light started to glow on his hand. It gently warped around Jory's head and eased back, leaving the nothing but a newly healed skin. It seemed that Surana was also a natural in healing magic, just like Wynne.

"You know, one good thing that we have a healer in our group." Alistair commented "Those darkspawn can be a nasty piece of work."

"Yes, Surana is a great help, unlike someone I know." Mahariel grunted, gave Silveras an evil eyes, which he returned with an innocent "_who, me?"_ look.

"Silveras may not at his best in healing magic, but his offensive spells are remarkable." Surana said "Some of them are beyond the Circle's knowledge. If I hadn't seen it as first hand, I would have never believe it could be possible."

"Why thank you, my dear Surana. "Silveras said charmingly "It's good to know someone had faith on me, unlike someone I know."

Before Mahariel could retort, Daveth had returned with the new. He said that he had found the old abandoned ruin, where the old treaties probably were. Silveras wondered if Morrigan was still there, waiting for them in Flemeth's order. He did not think he could be ready to face Flemeth yet. That old woman might know why Silveras was here, but he doubted Flemeth would tell him. Who knew what was going on in her mind.

As Silveras expected, the treaties was not there, and Morrigan did waited for them in the ruin. She looked exactly like the girl he had seen in the trailer video of Dragon Age, minus the clothes. Her clothes was the just as the game had described. She looked at them with her cold dark eyes, and said:

"What say you, hmm? Scavenger or Intruder?"

"I am neither. The Grey Wardens once owned this tower." Surana said calmly.

"This tower's no longer. The wild has obviously claim it as one of its own, of course." Morrigan said smoothly and processed to explain in great detail how they captured her attention (which Silveras supposed is a lie)

"Don't answer her. She looks chasind." Alistair warned "and the others may be nearby."

"Ooh. You fear that barbarians will swoop down upon you?" The dark-haired witch said sarcastically, gave the almost Templar one of her nasty glare.

"Yeah, swooping is bad." Somehow Alistair managed to say in complete straight face made Silveras chortle.

"She was the witch of the Wild. She is. She will turn us into toads." Daveth said in small whimper.

"The witch of the wild?" Morrigan scoffed "Such fancy idol those legend. Have you not have a mind of your own?"

Then she turned to Surana:

"You there. Elf's not some scared little boy. Tell me your name and I shall tell you mine."

"You can call me Jayde." Surana said softly.

"And you may call me Morrigan." Morrigan said "Shall I guess your purpose? You searched something in that chest, something that was here no longer?"

"Here no longer?" Alistair repeated, barely concealed his irritation "You stole them, did you? You some kind of sneaky-witch thief."

"I doubt it was her to do that." Silveras said, started to get bored of the conversation. He was traumatized, frantic and cranky. Hell would be damn if he stayed outside the wild any minute longer than necessary (okay, he may exaggerate a little bit).

"Morrigan, if I have to guess correctly, someone had took the documents away from prying eyes and now you are ordered to bring us to get those back?"

Morrigan lifted her eyebrow when she heard a man standing behind Surana said. She looked at him closely, as if trying to see through his mind and body. When she found nothing, her mouth curled up and she said:

"Well, well. It seems that there is a man with brain after all. Indeed, my mother was the one who removed the documents. If you wish, I could take you to my mother. Tis' not far from here. You can ask for your paper if you like."

"Please do, my lady." Silveras said charmingly.

"Are we sure about this?" Alistair asked "I don't like Morrigan's sudden appearance. It's too convenient."

"Are you deaf?" Mahariel said annoyedly "Silveras said that she was ordered to. Now shut your babbling and let's go. I'm tired of standing right here with you shems like an idiot."

Mahariel's word quickly shut Alistair up. Daveth and Jory looked at their companion in sympathy and followed Mahariel in case the Dalish elf expressed his displeasure toward them in more…physical ways.

The view of Flemeth's hut was just the same as in the game, except it was more disgusting since Silveras was actually walked through the swamp to reach that wretch hut. Silveras couldn't wish anything other than stay the hell away from this dreadful place and that abomination of a god. But no, he had a question needed to be answered, and only two people can answer it. One of them was in front of them right now, looking curiously at him and Mahariel.

_"So she know. Good, it will make thing easier."_ Silveras thought wryly.

"Mother, I…"

"I see them, girl." Flemeth said with her croaky voice "Hmm, It seems someone had managed to cheat the maker himself, and appear to where he's not supposed to be."

"What about you then, Flemeth? Still going around seeking for a forgotten justice after thousand years, then?" Silveras countered, ignored his companions' eyes on his back.

"Ah, such a witty one." Flemeth laughed "I see you know me very well, just as I know you. But the question is that do you know yourself as much as I know myself?"

"I intend to ask you about that, but it seems fruitless." Silveras said, hid his panic and frustration behind his calm and collected face "You'll never tell me."

"And why would I? It is not fun that way." Flemeth said "Now, I believe you come to take the documents, hmm? The seals on them broke long ago. You're lucky that I've protected them."

"You…you protected them?" Alistair said, taken aback.

"And why shouldn't I?" Flemeth scoffed "Take them, and warn the Grey Warden that this battle is more than it looks."

"Thank you for your advice." Silveras took the documents from Flemeth's old and wrinkled hand "and I suppose you should scout the Kocari wild for some time later. The city of chain needs its champion, you know."

"Don't expect me to do anything." Flemeth snorted "You have to take account for what you've changed."

"I'm just saying." Silveras shrugged, and bowed "It's time for us to go then."

"Very well then. Girl, escort them out."

Morrigan huffed angrily at the command under her mother's voice, while still looked at Silveras curiously. They managed to walk for about twenty minutes until Morrigan turned back to her home was he bombarded by Alistair and Mahariel:

"You know Flemeth?"

"Well." Silveras tried to come up a lie "My caretaker was an old friend of Flemeth."

"Your caretaker?" Alistair asked "What about your parents?"

"My parents would happily kill me if they had a chance." Silveras said coldly "Not that they didn't try."

"What?" Alistair stammered "B-but they are your family."

"The day you show your sign of magic is the day you lost everything, family or no." Surana said softly "As far as they know, you were cursed and abandoned by the maker just by showing your magic."

"I-I'm sorry." Alistair sputtered nervously "I didn't know…"

"It's okay." Silveras waved his hand "Not your fault my parents are scum."

"If you three quiet done. We're back to the camp."Mahariel said, pointed at the massive ruin in front of them.

Duncan was waiting near his camp as usual. He smiled when he saw all of his recruits returned in one piece with their mission accomplished. He ordered Alistair to lead them to the ruined temple, where the joining will process. Waiting was never Mahariel's strong point. And waiting for his unknown fate made him even mort cranky that he snapped at Daveth and Jory. Surana just stayed near to Alistair and twirled around his staff.

"And now we finally come to this." Duncan said softly, carried beside him a silver goblet. "Before we process to do anything, however, we still need to speak the joining ritual. Alistair, if you may."

"Certainly, Duncan." Alistair said solemnly "Join us, brothers and sisters. Join us in the shadows where we stand vigilant. Join us as we carry the duty that cannot be forsworn. And should you perish, know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten. And that one day we shall join you."

The display was just as Silveras remembered: Daveth didn't make it, Jory died on the hand of Duncan. Surana passed out but thankfully still alive. He held his breathe when he saw Mahariel took the joining chalice and drank it. The Dalish coughed furiously at the alien blood came through his throat, his eyes started to change, and after a minute or two, he finally passed out on the floor, unconscious but still live to tell the tale. And now, it was Silveras's turn.

Looking at the black concoction, Silveras swallowed. No matter how he mentally prepared for this, he couldn't stop the fear from spreading out. It was the matter of life and death, and god would know if he could live after drinking this.

"Silveras?" Duncan asked carefully.

Silveras snapped out of his daze, gave Duncan a tight smile and murmured:

"Duncan, if I'm not survive this. Please take Theron, Jayde and Alistair far away from the battlefield. They're our only hope."

"Wha-?" Duncan couldn't react soon enough, now the warden commander was staring at the withering form of Silveras. This was not the normal reaction of the decease.

"Alistair, take the new recruits and go. Now" Duncan barked, took his weapons out. Alistair managed to save Mahariel from the light that started to spearding out.

Silveras was panic. His mind was filled with many memories, old to new. Some of them was his own memories, but the others was different, strange and probably alien to him. Before he could make a gasp of what had happened to him. He was drawn to one memory. It was white and blurry. It took him quiet sometimes before he could realize that he was inside an egg. A silver egg which was stayed snuggled inside something warm and soft. What the hell was happening?

"It's time my child." A velvet voice rang through his mind. He remembered this voice. This is the same voice that wake him up into this world "You'll be safe out there."

_"Out there? Where's out there?"_ Silveras thought frantically.

"When the time's coming, I'll take you back. Until then, take care."

Before he know, he was suddenly in a great pain. It felt like his skin was pealed out by something sharp. He heard a scream rang through his ears and not until he was covered by darkness did he know that scream coming from him.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5: THE BATTLE OF OSTAGAR**

"_Ow, my head."_ Silveras moaned pitifully. The next time anyone ever asked him to drink something like this again, he will shove their weapons up into their asses. It hurt damn much. There was a shout somewhere around him and before he knew it, he was lift up and leaned on somebody.

"Give me the poultice." Silveras heard a low snarl and before he knew it, he was forced to drink something cold and vile. In his mind, he swore that he would pay back to Mahariel one day for doing this for him, but now he was too tired to care.

"Are you okay now?" Another voice rang through his ear and now his mind was clearer, he finally recognized the voice belongs to Surana "Do you need any healing, Silveras?"

"My head hurt." Silveras groaned "What happened?"

"We passed the joining." Mahariel murmured "I and Surana were unconscious for a while. When we woke up, you have already in coma. The healers took a great deal to stop you from losing blood."

"Nobody knows what happened to you." Surana continued "At first, Duncan thought that you did not pass the joining, but then … you started to change."

"Change?" Silveras asked, confused.

"We almost did not recognize you. Your face is different, and your magic power is a lot stronger now, but there was no sight of corruption."

"What do you mean there is no sight of corruption? I've already drunk the darkspawn blood, right?"

"That, I cannot answer." Duncan said, came toward them from afar "I was hoping that you can answer that question."

Silveras narrowed his eyes. He didn't know how it felt to have a taint inside you, but he could felt a sense of corruption near him, which meant he still had the ability to sense darkspawn. Maybe the reason was he wasn't from here. It made a perfect sense.

"I don't know for sure what was happening, but I can still sense the taint around here, especially you, Duncan."

"Hmm, it seems that you still have the Grey Warden's ability then. Perhaps we will find out later about your situation. Now, you should take some rest. The battle's coming and Ferelden needs every Grey Warden available now."

Silveras nodded, and watched as Duncan left with Alistair in tow. He raised his eyebrow when the young Templar looked at him with wonder and a little frightened.

"Why does Alistair look at me as if I will turn into a demon anytime?" Silveras asked.

"Well, you may not know but after you changed, you look exactly like Alistair, except the black hair and cheekbone." Surana said amusedly "The poor man was afraid that you will kill him in secret and replace him if he's not careful enough."

"Stupid shem." Mahariel scoffed. "And you all wonder why I hate human."

"Does that mean you hate me too?" Silveras pouted mockingly.

"Only when you're useless in battle." Mahariel said, with a hint of smile.

With the help of Surana and Mahariel, Silveras soon gained his strength back in the afternoon. He also received a new robe (which he declined and instead wearing a light armor like Mahariel) and a new staff. Looked at the staff with distate, Silveras determined to remind himself from now on to have a DA II staff custom made. This staff certainly was not his style.

"Silveras." Surana called "Duncan need us at the strategy meeting."

"I'm coming."

Mahariel was already at the meeting, openly glaring at the smiling face of king Cailan. He smirked when he saw the king's smile flatter at the sight of Surana and Silveras, but keep silent.

"There are our new grey wardens. I believe a congratulation is in order." King Cailan said tightly, looked at Silveras.

"My thanks, king Cailan." Silveras said politely, stood behind Duncan.

The rest of the meeting was a debate about upcoming battle's strategy, which Silveras took no interest in. He only paid his mind when Cailan and Duncan decided that Alistair and the new recruits went and lit the beacon on top of the tower of Ishal (He stressed out the word Alistair as if he must be the one to do it. Brother's instinct kicked in, Silveras guessed). Loghain, with his sour face, objected that Cailan shouldn't trust the Grey Warden so much, seeing that their origins was at Orlais. That settled Silveras's question toward the man's loyalty. If the man was such a cocksucker about the whole Orlais ordeal, then Silveras wouldn't be so surprised that the man would do anything to stop the Orlesians from ever step their feet on Ferelden's border. Darkspawn or no. Luckily for them, Silveras had already carried out his backup plan then, though there was something he still needed to do…

"Shouldn't it be better if only one person needed to light the beacon?" Silveras objected. "There's no need…"

"No, Silveras. The king's order is clear." Duncan said firmly.

Surana placed a calm hand on his shoulder to prevent him from protesting, shook his head lightly. Silveras relented to the soft demand from the elf mage, but his mind resolved: he will get into the battlefield, one way or another.

After the meeting, Silveras and his companions had a few hours rest before waking up at dawn to prepare for the upcoming battle. When there was only an hour left, they all gathered at Duncan's tent for the order.

"So he need, what, four grey wardens standing up there holding the torch. Just in case, right?" Alistair said rather grumpily, though Silveras could detect a hint of fear and anxiety toward his supposed brother. Despite not talking to each other, they still managed to care for each other, which cause Silveras having a bang of loss. He wondered if he would ever have someone care to him that way without being used.

"I agree with the shem. We should be in the battle." Mahariel said fiercely.

"None of that now." Duncan said "The king's order is clear. You four will go up to the tower and lit up the beacon so that Loghain could take a signal and charge."

"I get it. I get it. Just so you know, if the king ever asks me to put on a dress and dance the remigold, I'm drawing a line. Darkspawn or no."

"I don't know. That could be a great distraction." Surana said lightly, tried to improve the mood.

"Yeah, they will be rolling over laughing." Alistair said sarcastically.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you will look quiet catching in a dress."

"Maybe, but it have to be a pretty dress."

Silveras tried desperately to smother a laugh from escaping. Did Alistair know that he just unknowingly flirted with a man, an elf on top of that? Oh, he so gonna make it as blackmail material later.

"Now, I must go. The king is waiting." Duncan looked at the sky and turned his back on them. He paused when he heard Alistair called after him:

"May the maker watch over you." Alistair said with his somber voice.

"May the maker watch over us." Duncan returned the sentence, smiled at them and finally left for the battlefield.

"We must go." Surana murmured, lead them to the tower, where their destiny was await.

The battle was dreadful. People died in every minute, yet they never lost their fierce spirit, never looked back at their friend's corpse, only determined to drive back those monster. There would be time for grief, but now, they needed to be focus on the battle, defended the base until king Cailan came back in victory, just like the other three battles before. Too bad they didn't know that their effort would be forever in vain…

They ran across the bridge, passed a couple of injured guards, fought their ways out of the crow of darkspawn and finally hid themselves inside the tower of Ishal with an additional guard. (Silveras wondered what had happened to the mage came with this guard).

"How could those darkspawn be inside the tower. They're supposed to be at the battlefield." Alistair complained when he banged another genlock to the wall.

"Wasn't you the one who complain that there was no fighting?"Mahariel said, cut a hurlock's throat and backstabbed another.

"less talking, more moving." Silveras called out "The beacon cannot be lit itself, you know."

"Silveras's right. Duncan needs our help." Surana said firmly, casted heroic aura toward Alistair.

It took them a while to reach the room next to the stair, where in the middle was a big hole that lead to the battlefield. Silveras stared at it, and swallowed lightly. He darted his eyes toward their group, who had already killed the last darkspawn guarding this section of the tower.

"Are you going to come, Silveras?" Mahariel asked impatiently "As you said, the beacon cannot be lit itself."

"Yes, but that is your job." Silveras said quietly, and in the matter of second, quickly closed the door, used his magic to summon as many things as possible to seal the doorway.

There were a lot of banging and shouting, the clearest was Mahariel's cursing:

"Silveras? SILVERAS! YOU BASTARD, OPEN THE DAMN DOOR."

"Go, now." Silveras ordered through the door "reach the beacon, lit it. With the door sealed, all of you should be safe from the darkspawn coming up until the reinforcement reach the tower. I will stay here and buy you time."

"wha-" Alistair's voice became frantic "Are you mad? You cannot fight the darkspawn alone without backup."

"Are you intend to abandon your duty?" Silveras said harshly "The king's waiting for the reinforcement. He needs you, NOW."

"Let's go." Surana intoned "The sooner we lit the beacon, the sooner we can return to Silveras and help him."

"That…You bastard, don't you dare die before I can kick your ass. Do you hear me?" Mahariel snarled, and turned his heels to follow Surana's footstep.

"_Good to know that Surana will have everything under control if I cannot make it."_ Silveras thought, impressed. He had known Surana for only a short time and the elf had already showed him the potential of a good leader. He returned his gaze toward the blighted hole and breathed deeply. _"It's now or never."_

As expected, the maze underground was full with darkspawns. Silveras had to be carefull to cast a force field around him (the same one he used to protect him from violence from the…earlier life) and use the dagger that he took from the quartermaster to kill. Twice he had to hide under the darkspawn corpses to restore his mana and regained his health. The vile smell made him a little green, but he held his dismay in order to focus on more important task. When he managed to crawled his way toward the exit at the end of the ground and killed all the darkspawn nearby as well as sealed the tunnels by rocks and corpses (as promise to Surana and Mahariel), he was welcomed by the sight of darkspawn and soldiers killing each other. Arrows appeared randomly in the air, which almost cost him his life, and the light of spells shot everywhere toward behind the mass of darkspawn. Silveras kept moving, hiding behind some soldiers, sometimes using vulnerable hex to help them from being overwhelmed while looking frantically at the sight of Cailan and Duncan. One in the while he would nervously look at the tower of Ishal, sighed in relief when the beacon wasn't lift yet and returned his focus into the battle.

"_An orge, I just need to see the sight of that damn orge. Damn it."_ Silveras thought when he searched blightly of this whole mess of darkspawn and human. As thought the maker had heard his plead, an enormous orge suddenly appeared at the corner of his eyes, made him almost jumped up in joy. Silveras started to sprang, using his magic to knock all the burden back from his ways, allies or no. When he was finally about two or three feets away from the orge, a light started to burn up into the air. The beacon of Ishal had finally lit.

Then he saw, the golden armor with bastard sword with his back turned toward the orge. Cailan was busy fought back the crowd of Hurlock lunged toward him that he never saw death had come to see him while Duncan was still focus on his own darkspawn. The orge was coming nearer, only a feet away. His hand drew up, as if wanted to take a hold of Cailan and crushed him to death. _It was his destiny after all…_

For a moment, Silveras didn't know what happened. He just consumed inside him a burning rage and fear toward Cailan that he finally snapped. His eyes turned red, the ground under him shook furiously and with the final scream, Silveras pushed his magic toward that damn orge, hold him back from Cailan, surround it and every darkspawn with his magic.

"DON'T YOU DARE HURT THEM." Silveras snarled, and with a final push, the darkspawn was crushed into pools of blood and flesh, though none of it could reach Cailan.

"Wha- Silveras?" Duncan was surprised at first but then he narrowed his eyes "What are you doing here? You're supposed at the tower."

"No time for lecture, Duncan." Silveras said hurriedly "Loghain's men won't come. They've already retreated. We need to move, now. Ostagar's lost."

"What do you mean, Loghain's men won't come. I ordered him…" Cailan said sharply but was rudely interrupted

"Look, I don't come over here just to watch you two die for trusting Loghain. You'll follow me and tell the army to pull back. Fergus Cousland was two miles away at the North with his men ready for reinforcement. Tell the army to go there now."

"But- DUCK!" Duncan quickly shoved all three of them aside, since a stray spell managed to burn the ground where they just stood. Just as Silveras predicted, the battle was losing without the sight of Loghain and his men.

"Go, now." Silveras said, his hands growed blue for he summon a lot of lightning bolt to attack them so that he could buy Cailan more time.

"Retreat." Cailan called out, knowing that Silveras was completely serious about the whole ordeal.

The next thing was a blur to Silveras. He stayed by Duncan's side to buy some time, shooting spells after spells. People's scream of agony and the smell of blood made him felt sick but he remained standing tall, drained himself dry so that more people could escape from this hell hole. Not until the darkspawns were out of his sight did he collapsed on the ground, feverish but looked rather proud that his plan was finally success.


	6. Chapter 6

When Silveras woke, he was already tucked in the bedroll. Someone was sat beside him, gently playing with his hair. His mind was unfocused for a few moments before everything came rushing back. He let out a deep sigh when he remembered that he finally succeeded in saving Duncan and Cailan's life without throwing his life in line.

"Your majesty, you should take some rest." Duncan's voice came from the left of Silveras, followed by the flapping sound of the tent.

"How is everyone, Duncan?" Cailan said from above of his head, made Silveras wondered if he should be creep out that it was the king that was playing with his hair.

"It's…a mess. Most of our army was slaughtered, or died from fatal wound, only a minor was saved in time but were too injured to fight. Fergus Cousland was taking charge of defending the camp and help the injured right now, but his men were far too small to do anything more than that."

"If only Loghain…" Cailan sounded bitter, probably still not got over the fact that his father-in-law betrayed him in this matter "What do you think about Silveras?"

"_Me? Why do you pull me into this?" _

"Silveras is…strange, suspicious even. Yet he means well to us." Duncan said softly "though I should give him a tongue lashing for defying my order. I told him to go to the tower with Surana and Alistair."

"Now, Duncan, don't be so stern." Cailan laughed "If it wasn't for him, you and I would be killed at Ostagar, without knowing about Loghain's betrayal. It wouldn't be fair if you scold him for saving our lives."

"_Yeah, listen to Cailan."_

"I shall see about that when he wake up." Duncan hummed "providing that he stop faking sleep."

"_Blast it, how on earth did he know?"_ Silveras thought, reluctantly opened his eyes and sheepishly looked at Duncan's stern face. Duncan made him really, really looked like a small child who was in troubled with his parent for his mischief. Cailan looked at both of the Grey Warden with amusement before said somberly:

"How do you know Loghain will betray us?"

"eh…the maker told me?" Silveras said, hoping that they brought it up. It was way too early to think a suitable lie. But of course they would not believe it. They looked at him with their critical eyes which made him very uncomfortable and guilty. He swore that they had taken lesson with dr. Sandra when they were asleep and go through the fade.

"Okay, fine. I've already know that Loghain would betray you in the beginning." Silveras finally settled down with the half-truth "It was complicated, really. Do you remember the mirror I told you the first time we spoke, Duncan?"

"You said that it infested you and Mahariel with darkspawn decease." Duncan furrowed his eyebrow in thought.

"Yeah, that is an eluvian." Silveras bluffed "It was created from the time of Arlathan, supposed to be a portal to transfer the elves from here to there. Even now when it was tainted from the blight, it still had the power of sending someone to somewhere else, in my case, in the fade."

"The fade?" Cailan asked "How could a simple mirror bring you to the fade? It took a lot of lyrium to take someone to there."

"I don't know if it was the fade or not, but it sure looks like one. In there, there was a big stone board. On that stone board carved a lot of pictures. Most of them was faded, but some captured all the thing that would happen to Ferelden in the next two years, included the betrayal in Ostagar and the Blight coming after that."

"Are you saying that you managed see some kind of Prophecy about the fate of Ferelden?" Duncan said in disbelief "I found it really hard to believe."

"As far as I know, I saved a lot of lives by believing in them, included mine and Mahariel's life." Silveras pointed out "I also know that if it wasn't for it, Cailan would be crushed by an orge and you, Duncan, will be overwhelmed by the darkspawns and died somewhere in the battlefield."

"What you said is true." Cailan spoke "And you have my deep gratitude for saving my men in the battle. At least their life would not be in vain right now."

"I…your welcome, your majesty." Silveras said "Now there is something more important than interrogating me, yes? There is a blight to fight and people to rescue."

"I agree." Duncan nodded his head "We will discuss this matter later. Now we need to figure out what we should do to Loghain and the blight."

"It would be best if we go to Lothering." Silveras chimed in "Surana, Mahariel and Alistair are supposed to head that way anyway."

Maybe he shouldn't say that … or mention about Alistair in front of Cailan because the blond were shaking him furiously right now, his eyes wide and full of hope:

"Alistair's alive? Where's he? Is he hurt? Tell me now."

"YES, your fucking brother is alive, and well and broody somewhere in the wild. Now get your fucking hand out of me." Silveras shouted, finally wrenched himself out of Cailan's hand, rubbing his abused shoulder. Stupid warriors with their unnatural strength, Silveras muttered.

"I'm sorry." Cailan said sheepishly, rubbed his neck "It's just…wait, why do you know Alistair is my brother?"

"Please, I'm not that blind." Silveras rolled his eyes "You two look so much alike that I'm surprised that no one say anything about you two being related."

"Yeah well, being a king has its merit, and Alistair wouldn't want this kind of attention for himself." Cailan said. "It's the last thing I can do to make up for him."

"Hmm, you, my friend, may be a retard but at least you are a good older brother." Silveras smirked, ignored Cailan's feeble protest at being called a retard and turned to Duncan "We really need to move to Lothering soon. I don't know when Alistair reach it but it would be better for all of us to catch up with them"

"You're right." Duncan said "We lost most of our Grey Warden in the battle, so it would be better if we gather the last in Ferelden for the upcoming Blight. I just hope that Alistair and the new recruits won't be hold captured by Loghain's men."

"If I were you, I wouldn't worry that much." Silveras shrugged "Surana is destined to become Ferelden hero. He was supposed to be the one to stop both the Civil war and the Blight when you and Cailan died in that stone board. And I wouldn't want to interfere so much that risks to change the future"

"Then why would you…"

"What I did was to give Surana more choices in deciding the future of Ferelden." Silveras said "If you and Cailan died in that battle, all the burden will fall into Surana and Alistair's shoulder. Alistair will have to be forced to be a king, or die under Anora's greedy hand. Surana will be forced to have some kind of Ritual slay the archdemon, or die trying. Innocent lives will be slaughtered, and Ferelden would be lucky to stand tall when Orlais was preying after her like a skilled hunter. I don't know about you, but I for once would never stand by when I know I could help her."

After the little speech, Silveras was breathing heavily while Cailan and Duncan stared at him, stunned. He thought feverishly that somehow he was out of line. He wasn't even a Fereldan for damn sake. He was an outsider, a mere passenger who accidently landed himself inside a game. And those who he was interact with right now were only NPCs. But no, he couldn't think them as NPCs. Not anymore. Not when he could touch them and feel their heat under his fingers. Those people were actual lives, who tried to survive in this forsaken world, and hell would he let them die for the thing that they could not control. When Cailan and Duncan finally snapped out of their stun, they all looked at him such warm that made his skin crawled. Duncan said softly:

"You're a good man, Silveras. It's rare to see someone who would be so willing to help the others while ask nothing to return."

"Say you." Silveras flushed, muttered "Weren't the Grey Warden supposed to be the most selfless people who dedicated themselves for the greater good?"

"Not all of them, no. Some was conscripted to condemn their crimes, others joined to find glory in battle, and a small majority dedicate themselves to avoid death from the corruption." Duncan said "What they seek was to satisfy their own needs and wants, but you, you're different. You fight a battle that do you no use and save the people that probably don't even remember your face nor your name. Only the one who have a great heart can do that."

Silveras ducked his head, blushing furiously. He wasn't used to be complimented, especially from the man who he respected greatly. Before Silveras could form any word, another man came inside the tent. He was tall, and muscled. He wore a knight armor with a shield trapped at his back. On the shield was a crest, which Silveras recognized as Cousland.

"_So this is Fergus Cousland."_ Silveras mused, looked at the man over. When he processed his plan to move Cousland out of the battle and acted as back up for the retreat, Mahariel was the one who did all the work, including stealing king Cailan's signet ring (he actually awed that Mahariel could indeed steal that signet ring since he just expect him to remember the design and made a new one) to forge an order and meeting Cousland. So it was the first time he actually met the last heir of the Cousland's line.

"My king." Fergus bowed at Cailan "My apology for my sudden interruption but there are some darkspawn scouts started to head our way. I fear that a large horde of darkspawn is nearby."

"I see." Cailan stood up "told your men to get ready to move out. After we kill the scouts, head north. We're going to Lothering."

"As your command." Fergus said, nodded at Duncan, looked at Silveras with faint curiosity and moved to follow Cailan's order.

"Are you strong enough to move yet?" Cailan asked "If not, I will move you to one of the carriage."

"I don't think I'm ready to move…or stand, yet." Silveras said, he was still tired from the overusing his magic and he doubted he would regain his stamina in such a short notice. Besides, if he remembered correctly, he was injured somewhere on his knees and thighs.

"Okay then." Cailan said, pulled Silveras up to his arm, despite Silveras's blushing face and loudly protest. Instead, the blond-haired man just smiled charmingly and said "Let's go to Lothering."


	7. Chapter 7

The journey to Lothering proved to be more difficult than Silveras thought because of many distraction on the road: from escaped soldiers, darkspawns and elf who should not be there in the first place, namely Theron Mahariel.

It surprised, and infuriated him to see the elf staggered his way back to Ostagar, alone, without the sight of Surana and Alistair. Part of him was grateful that the Dalish was alive but the other part was angry that he stupidly came back to Ostagar without back up.

"Are you mad?" Silveras scolded loudly when all of them were in secured area for some rest "when I left you to Surana, I expected you to stay safe and sound, but no, you just wanted to be a dickhead and stupidly come back to that hell hole for what, petty revenge? Do you have any idea what they would do to you? You were alone, Mahariel, without backup and nobody would save you in time."

"Say the man who left us at the tower of Ishal." Mahariel angrily retorted "I'm not some little child, Silveras. You cannot keep coddle me. I have a mind of my own."

"your stubborn mind will get you killed someday." Silveras snarled harshly "And what about the Grey Wardens? They need you…"

"I don't care about the Grey Warden." Mahariel screamed, pushed Silveras roughly to a tree, pulled a handful of the mage's collar "All I care is you. How could you expect me to leave you like that, my lethallin, to save the people that did nothing but enslaving my people? How could you force me to do the thing that I have already done to Tamlen?"

Silveras stared at Mahariel, stunned. He never thought that Mahariel would care for him like one of his own. And worse, Silveras forced him to revive the bitter choices that Mahariel had to choose back to when Tamlen was missing.

"Theron, I-"

"Forget it." Mahariel said bitterly, withdraw his hand "You would never understand."

Silveras watched Mahariel stomped out, guilt ate inside him but he ignored it, held firmly on the fact that what he did was for Mahariel's own good, even Mahariel hated him for it. He turned his head toward the camp, looked apologetically at Duncan and Fergus. He noticed that the king was somehow slipped out to follow the fuming elf, but he wasn't worry for his safety much. The king was more than a competent warrior and Mahariel so far was the most skilled rogue that Silveras had ever seen. Not to mention the guards were trolling nearby. They would be safe.

"Theron seems to be quite attached to you." Duncan observed "I've never seen an elf who would risk his life just to look for some human's well-being."

"I'm sure that his attachment toward me will end today if not already have." Silveras said sadly "Am I wrong trying to put him out of harm way?"

"If I were you, I wouldn't doubt myself for once bit." Duncan said firmly "You've done what you thought is the best for him, even he didn't agree with you. Just give him time, and he will understand."

Somehow Silveras really doubted Mahariel would forgive him easily, but he was willing to give the elf time. In this world, the dalish elf was the closest thing that he could call family.

While Silveras was busy musing, Mahariel and Cailan had another conversation on the other side of the forest.

"Why are you following me, shem?" Mahariel asked, annoyed. This peacock had been following him since he stomped out of the camp and he was too tired and angry to actually shoo him away.

"I thought that you would need a company." Cailan shrugged, his easy-going smile stilled placed firmly on his face "Especially after your spat with Silveras."

"I don't need a company." Mahariel scowled "Especially not from you, you sick pervert."

"Hey." Cailan protested "I thought you were spies back then, I just wanted to capture you, not that."

"As if I'm gonna believe you. You're practically drooling over me."

"Well, you're cut…handsome, I mean handsome." Cailan hastily lamented when he saw Mahariel's withering glare. One good thing that the man hadn't said that he thought Mahariel was a cute girl, or he would die in the most dreadful way.

"You shemlens are always quick with your charming and flattery." Mahariel rolled his eyes, his anger flatered slightly at the compliment.

"I assure you, there is only one master of flattery in Ferelden, and it's me." Cailan said charmingly "Let me tell you about the time I manage to charm three girls in one time."

Mahariel raised his eyebrow, looked in interest as Cailan bluffing about his sex life. The more they talked, the happier the elf seemed to be. He actually laughed at one of Cailan's joke once, his foul mood completely disappeared.

The party reached Lothering the next day. Mahariel was still crossed with Silveras, but he was in better mood than before. Silveras supposed that he should thank Cailan for cheering up Mahariel, since the elf was quite friendly to Cailan lately. Duncan and Fergus decided that they should camped outside the village so that they would not raise alarm to Loghain. Only a few people allowed to come inside the village to resupply and find out some information. This was where Silveras made his next move.

"Are you sure to go inside the village? Loghain's men would probably search for you right now." Duncan asked. Silveras was a valuable Grey Warden and he didn't intend to let Loghain have Silveras captured.

"Don't worry about it." Silveras replied "I have two warrior with me and a skilled rogue. Noone will hurt us."

"True." Duncan nodded "However, it would be best if you return before dawn."

"Yes, dad." Silveras rolled his eyes, said sarcastically.

He then turned to two warrior standing besides Mahariel: Carver and Aveline. It was not coincident that he chose those two as his bodyguards, just as it was not coincident that they were safely with the Cousland when the battle was lost. No, Silveras had told Mahariel to forge a false order from the king to remove Fergus Cousland's men and them to safety. It was a risk to remove a full well-trained army from the battle but it was a necessary risk. At least right now Carver and Aveline would travel to Kirkwall with the rest of the Hawke without unnecessary death. Carver looked younger than he expected, given that the man barely reached his eighteen this year, but his attitude was just exactly what the game had described. Aveline was different, though. Her hair was redder than the game, and she was less freckle. She was still as tall as he remembered, but more feminine than masculine. She was wearing a soldier armor with sword and shield trapped behind her back.

"Grey warden?" Aveline prompted

"Ah, yes?" Silveras snapped out of his musing.

"Where are we going?" She asked "Don't we suppose to buy some supply for our army?"

At the corner of his eyes, he saw Carver was fidgeting, looking anxiously at the small house near the bridge, which Silveras realized as Carver's home, where the Hawke lived. He tapped his chin, and spoke:

"No, we're not buying supply for the army. In fact, the reason I need you two here because I have a job for you. Though we need to be somewhere private, first. Carver, I heard you lived here before you joined the army. Have any idea about private place?"

"Well" Carver looked unsure for a moment "I guess we can go back to my house? It was a few step anyway, and my family doesn't pry…much."

"Very well, lead the way, Carver." Silveras said politely.

Carver led them to the house he had been eyeing the whole time they were here. The house closed, but Silveras could hear the faint noise inside, indicated that there were people home. Carver let out a deep breath and raised his hand to knock, rather loudly, at the door. There was some cursing, and cracking noise then a man showed up.

Silveras blinked at the sight of the man, and rubbed his eyes so that he wasn't hallucinating. In front of him was someone who looked exactly liked Loki in the movie Thor.

"Who- Carver?" the Loki-look-alike stared at Carver indreculously.

"Big brother." Carver said quietly, rubbed his neck nervously "I'm back."

"You bastard." Hawke, now that Silveras was sure, gave out an angry cry and punched Carver hard on the jaw "Do you have any idea how worry we are when you joined the army without notifying us? Mother was crying for days."

"Loki, what's going on?" An old voice rang up, and Silveras's eyebrow shot up to his hair. Not only Hawke looked like the mischief god in the movie but his name was actually the same? What next, he was an evil mage that wanted to rule the world?

"Mother." Carver breathed, looked at the newly appeared old woman. Leandra was rather short compared to her sons, and skinny. Her hair was grey, even though she looked no more than forty five. She widened her eyes when she saw her youngest son stood in front of the house with some strangers, but she paid no mind to ponder about it, only reached out and hugged Carver tightly.

"My son, you come back." She whispered, her eyes filled with tear "When the bann came back from the battle without you, I thought the worst."

"I'm sorry, mother." Carver said, and then blushing at the openly affection from his mother in front of his superior and companion "Mother, can you let me go? The grey wardens are here, and they need a private place to discuss something to me."

"The grey warden?" Leandra pulled back in surprised, now turned her head toward Silveras and Mahariel. She said hastily "I apology, I did not know Carver would bring guest."

"It is well, Lady Hawke." Silveras said easily "I'm should be the one to apology for our sudden appearance. But we in need of a private place to discuss about a favor that Carver and his companion Aveline will do for us, though you're welcome to hear it. It affects your family somewhat, anyway."

"What does it has to do with our family?" Loki asked suspiciously when he followed them inside the house "You better not harm our family with your so called mission."

"Stop it, brother." Carver said in irritation "The grey wardens are nice people. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't come back from the battle."

"I will be blunt to you. I need you to go to Kirkwall and take care of the Ferelden fleeing citizens there." Silveras said "As you should know, the Blight is coming and I need someone to a leader and protector for the blight survivors in Kirkwall in meantime."

"Why Kirkwall? Why not anywhere else?" Loki asked in distate.

"Because I believe you Hawke had some relatives in Kirkwall, Amell perhaps?" Silveras said, looked at Leandra. The old woman looked surprised but nodded

"It's true. My old family comes from Kirkwall."

"I understand that the Hawkes is needed in this mission. But why do you chose me?" Aveline questioned.

"The Hawke's is needed to deal with politics there as lady Hawke here was quite familiar with them but I need you to keep the Fereldens there in line. I read your profile, Aveline Vallen, and I'm impressed with your leadership. I think that if you and Carver work together, it would sufficient enough not to let another raid against Ferelden until the Blight is over."

"I see." Aveline nodded "Very well, I accept this mission."

"Thank you." Silveras smiled sincerely "What about you, Carver? Will you accept?"

"Wait a minute." Loki stepped his foot down "We will need to discuss this first."

"It's me he was asking." Carver cried angrily.

"I'm your big brother, I'm in charge." Loki said simply. He roughly dragged a protesting Carver in tow, Leandra trailed of behind them.

"_So he was the rough one, huh?"_ Silveras mused. _"And I wonder where Bethany is?"_

After a long waiting, Loki finally came back, looked calculative. He turned to Silveras and said:

"We accept your propose in one condition."

"Oh, and what could it be?"

"If we want to quit this job, you will not stop us nor accuse us from deserting."

"I agree." Silveras nodded, pulled from his robe a large pulse "This is forty sovereigns for the journey and other needs. It should have last for a year or so. Use it wisely."

"Very well." Loki nodded, accepted the pouch. "Is there anything else?"

"I hereby stand here as a behalf of Ferelden to thank you for your courtesy to accept this mission. It is not an easy task, and I'm forever grateful that you're willing to offer a help when we need the most." Silveras bowed. "Now, I'm done here. I will leave you two to discuss your future journey and hopefully this would not the last time we meet."

"I-You're welcome." Loki looked rather uncomfortable at the bowing man "I will escort you out."

When Silveras was back outside, he was looked face to face with Mahariel, who refused to go inside a shem's house. The elf was looking at him with narrowed eyes and jaw set.

"You gave all the sovereigns I stole for you." Mahariel accused.

"So?" Silveras challenged him. "I did say it was needed for something else."

"We need it more for the blight."

"I assure you, it was necessary." Silveras said "Have you ever seen I did something that wasn't useful?"

"Your ego are way too big." Mahariel rolled his eyes, grudgingly accepted Silveras's reason. It was true that Silveras never did something deem to be useless for them after all.

The two of them walked around the village to buy some supply and search for any news toward Loghain and Surana. They managed to find some about Surana when they talked to the reverse mother in the chantry. She said that there was an elf with the same description passed here two days ago, asking her to release the qunari that she caged outside the village. When Mahariel heard about it, he scowled and glared at the reverse mother as if she had done a great crime. Silveras could somewhat understand why Mahariel had such a feud against the Chantry. It was them, after all, the ones who destroyed his ancestor's homeland because of some petty prejudge. However, fighting right now was not in his to-do list, so Silveras quickly dragged him out before the elf could rant and insult the reverse mother.

Another lead was from the villagers outside the inn. It seemed that Surana was really worried about the growing terror that happened in the Circle that he lost his cool and forced the answers out of the citizens. It was so not like the calm elf he had known back to Ostagar.

"You're back." Duncan noted when he saw the two of them "Good timing, too. We need you two to figure out what we should do."

Silveras nodded, went straight to Cailan's tent, which was also served as the meeting chamber. Fergus and Cailan were already inside, inspecting the map of Ferelden.

"Ho there, Silveras, Theron." Cailan said "I hope there is no trouble in Lothering?"

"Not that I know of." Silveras replied "Though I have some news."

"What is it?" Cailan asked curiously

"I found where Surana and Alistair had gone." Silveras said, pointed his finger toward the tower near lake Calenhad "It seems that the Circle was full of abominations right now and he needs to help them."

"I though the templars would take care of that." Fergus asked, confused.

"Not when blood mages are involved." Silveras answered "They had gone for a day now so we could not catch up to them in time. I suggest we go somewhere else and wait until they catch us."

"hmm, in that case we should go to Redcliffe." Duncan mused, pointed to the castle symbol across the tower near lake Calenhad. "Alistair had close connection with arl Eamon so if he wants help, he'll probably go there first. Besides, the arl is your uncle, he will protect you, your majesty."

"Providing that he finishes chewing my head off for my recklessness, that is." Cailan chuckled, but his voice was hard, which made Silveras wondered why the king was so hostile to his uncle.

"Very well, we will move to Redcliffe. There is another matter, however." Silveras hesitated "Commander Cousland, I do not think you would like to hear this."

"Why?" Fergus asked suspiciously, dread started to fill his stomach.

"There is a rumor that the Couslands were dead by bandits the day you went to Ostagar."

The silence was deafening. Fergus Cousland looked at Silveras blankly, his eyes were daze, as if he pretended not to hear about it.

"It's a lie." He murmured.

"Fergus." Cailan said cautiously.

"It's a lie." Fergus snapped "My family wasn't dead. They are still alive, and waiting for me back to Highever. They were teryn. Nobody would dare to hurt them. And they were skilled warrior, no bandits can harm them."

The more Fergus spoke, the more he became hysterical. Cailan tried to reason with him, but his effort was in vain. When they were unsure about what to do, Mahariel stepped up, and punched the man hard.

"Are you done?" Mahariel asked coldly "Denying won't have them return."

Fergus blinked up at the dalish elf, dazed. Tears started to flow down to his face.

"Your family doesn't need you to become like this. They need to have justice for their death, and you are the only one responsible to do the deed. So stand up now and drop your pathetic face. Prepare your sword until the time for revenge has come."

"Theron." Silveras murmured, gently pulled him back. He knew how Mahariel felt. He was practically in the same position and the need of revenge would really drive him mad if it wasn't for the fact that Silveras tried to take his mind out of it.

Fergus looked at his hand for a moment then took a swallow breathe. He stood up, and looked at Silveras:

"Who did this?"

"I heard that the Howe was in Cousland's castle the day they were attacked. Wouldn't it be surprised when Teryn Howe and his men did not have hurt anything during his stay when the Cousland was slaughtered?"

"Rendon Howe!" Fergus gritted his teeth "that bastard ambushed my family."

"It is madness, why would Howe kill the Cousland?" Cailan asked.

"I'm not sure about other things, but the Cousland was killed the day they planned to make reinforcement for the battle in Ostagar. Coincidence?"

Both Cailan and Duncan drew a sharp breathe. They now knew who was behind all of this.

"I assure you, Fergus. When we reach Denerim, I will have Howe executed." Cailan said firmly.

"But before hand, you should retake Highever." Silveras said "I heard that Howe returned to Denerim now, so the Cousland castle is empty, except for some guards. If you and your men attack them at night, you will reclaim Highever without them sending notice to Howe. Then I need you to contract to as many noble as possible to raise a rally against Howe and Loghain while I, king Cailan, Duncan and Theron gather reinforcement for the blight."

"A fine plan." Duncan praised "But wouldn't it be too dangerous for king Cailan? He's very important to Ferelden."

Before Cailan could form out any protest, Mahariel had already pointed out:

"He's not some child playing sword, Duncan. He had fought in the war and lived through it. We need a skilled warrior like him."

"It's true. But there is something more." Silveras said, turned to Cailan "I admit that you have a good heart, king Cailan, but you're far too inexperienced for it. A good king is the one who had experienced all the hardship from every kind of life, listened to different races of people and witnessed most of tragic scenario, but you so far hadn't done any of it."

"Silveras, it is out of line." Duncan scolded lightly, though he looked like he agree with it.

"No. What I said is the true. In the stone board, Alistair would have been king if you had died in Ostagar, and he was a good king. Not because it was in his nature, but because he survived both the Blight and the civil war. He had learnt from all the hardship during the war and grew up from it. If you want to be a great king to Ferelden, you have to do the same as Alistair. Ferelden needs a good leader who would take a good care of her not some petty soldier that seeks for glory."

Cailan stared at Silveras, unsure how to deal with this. On one hand, he should be offended by the accusation that Silveras had given him and threatened to have him hanged. On the other hand, he knew that what Silveras said was true. If he wanted to be a good king like his father Maric, he should follow Silveras's advice. He frowned, looked deep in thought and slowly nodded rectulantly:

"You're right."

"That's settled it." Silveras smiled "Now, we should take a rest. There's a lot of thing to do tomorrow."

Hopefully don't involve politics, he hated politics.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8: REDCLIFFE_PART 1

"Have I ever mentioned how much I hate you?" Silveras pouted as he followed behind Cailan like a kicked puppy.

They had gone to Redcliffe as promise, but the place was full of wounded people and soldiers who were desperate for outsiders' help. The guy who met them by the bridge had lead them to arl Eamon's younger brother, bann Teagan. The bann didn't recognized Cailan or Duncan, since both of them were under disguise (how and where Duncan had all the disguise tools, Silveras would never know), but he was still polite and showed respect to them. His fondness toward Teagan was, however, quickly disappeared when he asked them to fight for them tonight. It was not like Silveras didn't want to help him, but it looked rather pointless if they going up to Redcliffe now and cleaned all the undead things and stopped Connor before sunset. When Silveras decided to explained, Cailan quickly cut his sentence off and agree whole heartedly to help Teagan. And now the mage had to follow the over eager king and his trustful grey warden Duncan all around Redcliffe village trying to find additional help and upgrade for the fight for tonight.

"I'm sorry, did I do anything to offend you?" Cailan asked, genuinely concerned "I thought that when you say I have to experience every kind of hardship in life, that means I have to go through every kind of responsibility and additional mission besides the blight, such as this. Am I wrong then?"

_"That's bastard. How on earth could I think he was a harmless puppy who was just eager to prove himself?"_ Silveras thought furiously, glaring at the back of Cailan's head. He was now deeply regretted that he had said anything about letting Cailan come with them, because it how came back biting him in the ass.

Mahariel and Duncan looked between of them, trying to cover their snort. Since Cailan was Alistair's brother and Silveras looked so much the Templar (even Teagan mistake him as Alistair and gave him a rather funny story about the warrior much to Silveras's amusement) that everyone would have thought that they were having the usual brother bicker, and they sure acted like one, too.

"Now Silveras, do you have any idea that we can get some additional help besides the militia and knights?" Duncan asked him after they managed to convince the reverse mother to give her blessing for the knights.

"There is an elf at the inn, a dwarf with his men somewhere by the dock, and a barrel of oil in the stockroom." Silveras sullenly said. Despite his irate toward the blond haired man, he did not wish to let them fight without helps that already in Redcliffe besides them.

"Quite informative." Theron commented "Though I believe we should split to get the jobs done quicker. The sunset is near."

"I agree." Duncan nodded "Cailan and I will go to the inn while you go find the dwarf."

Silveras noticed with interest that Theron somehow managed to be diplomatic when he was dealing with the dwarf, Dwyn. There was no single trace of irritation on his face even when the dwarf challenged him to force them to help the village. It made him wonder that perhaps someone had managed to change the elf's personality.

"If you must know." Theron said as he noticed the incredulous look on Silveras's face "I'm happened to respect all kind of race except human. Dwarf is a powerful allies with their advance in crafting, Qunaris are strong and loyal to their causes. Only you stupid human would dare to look down on them just because they are different from you."

"So you respect every race but human?" Silveras asked, confused "What about us?"

"Duncan is a good man, he respects every race on Thedas therefore it is my job to return his respect. Cailan…I doubt he is as much as a man as he is a mabari."

Silveras snorted, knowing full well about Cailan's eagerness to fight in the battle. Well, who's better be a king to Ferelden than the big bad mabari itself?

"And what do you think about me?"

"Honestly, I don't know." Theron stopped to look at Silveras "You have many personalities, Silveras. Sometimes, when I think I know you, you started acting differently. While you're the same easy-going guys I have known back when we first met, I still cannot figure out your emotion sometimes, as if you have been trained to hide those things away. I cannot judge someone when I didn't know him fully."

"Hmm." Silveras mused, but didn't comment on Mahariel's word. He knew he had some trouble to show his feelings and it was not easy to drop it, but he had to admit that Mahariel was very observing if he managed to see through his mask.

"There you are." Cailan's voice rang through the crowd, and Silveras saw Cailan and Duncan called them at the hill, next to the tavern "Got any problem?"

"No." Mahariel answer shortly.

"Glorious. Then we should be ready for the massacre tonight." Cailan said cheerful "I wonder if it would be a great battle."

"I wonder if I could break your nose for your stupidity." Silveras scowled softly.

"Are you going to be difficult all night?" Cailan frowned, eyeing Silveras.

"Until we can go to the castle? Yes." Silveras grumbled.

He knew he was being childish, but he didn't like to face undead. He hated those walking corpses with their bones sticking out, and he sure as hell didn't like to face them in the middle of the night, where he could be very paranoid for fear being jumped from the dark. At least he could take comfort that undead can be very slow and weak during daytime (Ironically, he got no problem of darkspawns, which were also a type of walking dead).

Cailan shook his head, didn't bother to respond to Silveras, instead choosing to discuss strategy with Duncan. Duncan gave him an amused glance, and turned his attention to Cailan. Somehow, Silveras had a shrinking feelings that Duncan knew about his fear. That man was the only one that he would never understand fully.

The night came far too quickly for Silveras's taste. Now he was standing behind a mass of warriors by the windmill. The moon was shining, but it didn't help him from flinching lightly whenever a rustling sound appeared. It became worse when the temperature started to drop and a faint rawr coming from above of his head.

_"Damn, damn, damn. I should have chosen another route, or at least wait until Surana catch up with us."_ Silveras thought, faintly aware that he was shaking. Mahariel must have noticed this as he withdrew his bow out and stayed at the back with Silveras. He murmured:

"Alright, Silveras?"

"Nothing. Just some bad memories." Silveras muttered, clutched the staff tightly.

Ser Perth had already ordered to light the oil and the warriors were waiting in baited breathe for any sight of monster. About a moment or so, some dark figure ran past the fire, and charge toward the warrior. They were nothing but skin and bones. Their eyes were nothing but a white socket which happened to lighten up whenever they fight. Seeing those hideous creatures at the middle of night greatly remind him of his childhood, of a mistake that he had done when he was young and foolish. The only thing that saved him from freezing right on the spot that those monsters were male, not female.

Duncan and Cailan seemed to notice that his magic was noticeably weaker than before as they would occasionally flickered their eyes toward him, looked concerned. Finally, after three hours of nightmare, the assault on the cliff finally stopped, and all the corpses mysteriously turned into smoke and disappeared, providing that they all returned to the fade. There was another assault near the chantry judging by the fighting sound but Cailan decided that Silveras should stay with the knights while the rest of them taking care of the matter down the hill. Silveras couldn't be anymore grateful for the king. He didn't think he could look at them anymore tonight. He was paranoid enough so that he didn't need any reason to get his sanity slipping and started to attack both enemies and allies.

"You're a mage." One of the knight, the one with strange scar on his jaw stated, looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"So?" Silveras raised his eyebrow "Don't tell me there hasn't been any mage pass here."

"With Templars, maybe but never alone. You must be an apostate." The knight accused loudly, drew attention from his fellow knights. Some of them were looking at him with faint fear and disgusted.

"And since when it is your matter? You fear that I will use you as human sacrifice? Or you want to be turned into toad?" Silveras said sarcastically.

"Mages should not run free. They're locked in the Circle for reason. It's in the Chantry's law."

"Funny thing that I happened to be a grey warden" Silveras said coldly. He was tired, cranky and very pissed at how they looked at him "the chantry has no authority over me as the grey wardens have no authority over the Templars, so unless you and your petty chantry want to fight the darkspawns for your own, I suggest you shut your mouth before I decided you're annoyed and turn you into toad and stomped you with my own feet."

The staff on his hand sparked lightly upon his anger, which made the knights jumped back in fear. Even ser Perth looked warily at him, ordered some of his men to have some distance in case that Silveras could make good in his threat. Dwyn, smart little dwarf that he was, chose to stay far away from the whole ordeal and mostly kept for himself and his employees. Silveras smirked at the scared look the knight who dared to crossed him and gave him a finger, his mood lift slightly at the small victory.

After an hour or two having a staring contest at the knights, sunlight started to take over the night, and Silveras gave out a small relief breathe that the whole nightmare was over. His paranoid mind now could finally take a well-deserved rest. Brooding and worrying can took you a lot of energy for all you know. A messenger, he recognized that it was the same one greeted them when they first stepped in Redcliffe, ran to them to announce that the battle had won and there were no death, thankfully. Apparently, Mahariel and Duncan were rather skilled in covered all the injured militia while Cailan was happily swinging his sword toward the undeads. Silveras snorted when he saw the sight of Cailan. Blood covered him from head to tall and not even a single drop could touch his stupid blond hair. How he could do that, Silveras would never know.

Teagan gave them a heart-fell speech and praised the four of them for the heroic act then he asked them to have a private discussion on the cliff near the windmill, provided that they had some rest first, of course (Teagan practically shrank back when Silveras gave him a withered glare that promised painful death if he dared to stood between Silveras and the mage's beautiful sleep). Unlike Duncan, Silveras did not have nightmare about the archdemon so he was blessed with a rather sweet dream for sleep. He did not feel that fortunate, however, when he found himself be trapped between Cailan and Mahariel, both of them decided that he was good enough a pillow to snuggle in when he had some _personal business_ to take care to.

Duncan, blessed his soul, woke up in time and free Silveras from a tangle of limbs before the mage could embarrass himself. Freeing Silveras turned out a very amusing thing to see, since Cailan didn't appreciate getting his pillow taken away so he waved his hand madly on his side until he found Mahariel's small form, gave a little sigh when he breathed in the lavender smell on Mahariel's hair and hugged the elf tightly. Silveras wondered if Cailan could survive when Mahariel woke up and found himself trapped inside a shemlen. The Dalish elf could be quite violent when he wanted to be.

"Teagan wanted to meet us by the hill. We should not make him keep waiting." Duncan looked pointly at Silveras.

"Not my fault when Cailan decided it was a good practice for him to defend against an assault at night." Silveras grumbled.

Once at the windmill, everything went the same as in the game, well, until Isolde arrived anyway.

"Teagan." A French, or in this case Orlesian, voice appeared in the thin air "Thank the maker you yet live."

Isolde was prettier than Silveras thought, and her eyes were full of desperation, yet alive, unlike the guards behind her. She stopped in front of Teagan, pointly ignored Silveras and Duncan. She said between her gasp:

"I do not have the time to explain! I slipped away from the castle as soon as I saw the battle was over and I must return quickly. And I… I need you to return with me, Teagan. Alone."

The way Isolde shuffled closer to Teagan made Silveras raised his eyebrow, wondered if the two of them had some kind of affair now that arl Eamon was sick.

"You don't seem too concern about what's going on here." He commented dryly.

Isolde reared away from Teagan and turned to look at Silveras. Her eyes narrowed slightly before widened at recognization (falsely, of course). She sneered at the mage as if he was nothing but dirt under her shoes.

"Alistair? Of all the… Why are you here?"

"And why I shouldn't be here, lady Isolde?" Silveras mocked, gestured his hand slightly to Duncan indicated that he would handle this.

"They are grey wardens, Isolde. I owe them my life." Teagan quickly stepped in before Isolde could come up another insult.

"Pardon me, I … I would exchange pleasantries, but…considering the circumstance…"

Silveras rolled his eyes at Isolde's failed attempt of politeness. Hell would be freezed over if Isolde be polite toward Alistair, real or fake.

"Please, lady Isolde." Duncan said "We have no idea anyone was even alive in that castle." A glance toward Silveras "We must have some answers."

"I-I know you need more of an explanation…" Isolde trailed up, turned her pretty tearful face toward Teagan "I don't know what is safe to tell. Teagan, there is a terrible evil within the castle. The dead waken and hunting the living. The mage responsible for this was caught, but still it continues. And I think Connor is going mad."

"Mad is a right word." Silveras muttered, ignored an angry glare from Isolde.

"We have survived, but he won't flee the castle. He had seen so much death! You must help him, Teagan! You're his uncle, you could reason with him. I do not know what else to do."

"How the hell can you expect Teagan to reason with an insane child when you cannot do it on your own?" Silveras said incredulously "My lady, I have never seen anyone lie as bad as you are."

Isolde looked as if she had been slapped. She turned to face Silveras, her eyes were wide and full of angry fire. She practically spitted on his face:

"How dare you? You're just jealous that you'll never be better than my son, a bastard child with no respect to superior."

"As if I'm jealous with an abomination." Silveras scoffed.

The sentence made Isolde lost the last of her control. With a cry, she jumped forward and slapped Silveras hard, enough that sent him slammed to the ground. Teagan let out a horrified gasp and lunged forward before Isolde could attack the mage. Duncan for once looked quite angry and glared at the screaming woman before he turned to check over Silveras.

An arrow suddenly appeared of nowhere and flying toward Isolde, missing her face by an inch. The noble woman jumped in fright and shrunk her body close to Teagan while the other man paled as he saw a murderous elf standing right on the cliff, bodily restrained by his companion.

"What's going on here?" Cailan barked, looked downright displeased and irritated upon seeing the Orlesian woman. He never liked Isolde and seeing her slapping Silveras made his dislike even greater.

"He insulted me." Isolde screamed, accusingly pointed her long finger toward Silveras, who was still looking rather daze from his concussion "Teagan, how could you-"

"Isolde, enough." Teagan said firmly, then turned toward Silveras "I apologize for her behavior. She was distressed by the whole ordeal-"

"I will forgive her when I'm take my revenge." Silveras snarled, holding his bruised cheek.

Before anyone could form a word, Isolde was roughly pulled away from Teagan and lifted up from the ground. She choked as she used her hands from freeing an invisible grasp from her throat. Her eyes were wide when she looked at the glowing hand of Silveras, who was smiling rather cruelly at her.

"You…not…Alistair…" She gasped, now really fear for her life.

"I never say that I'm Alistair." Silveras said "But I could give him a real favor in torturing you as I see now how you treat him."

"Please, have mercy." Teagan begged "she didn't mean…"

"Of course she would mean it if I were Alistair." Silveras scowled.

"Silveras." Duncan placed his hand on his shoulder "Enough."

"You're lucky that my companions and Alistair wouldn't like me torturing you, or else you would beg for mercy right now."

With that being said, Silveras sent the bitch toward the tree, smiled in pleasure when her head slammed on the hard wood. Her eyes rolled as she fell unconscious. A team of knights, Ser Perth's team, ran to the windmill when they heard a fight and gasped at the sight. The one who accused him last night looked really displeased and looked in distate at Silveras.

"Must you be so rough?" Teagan frowned, looked frustrated "Now we will never know what's happening in the castle."

"You don't, but I do." Silveras said "Bann Teagan, I know you have a key to open the secret entrance in the windmill. Give it to me and we will clear the way to the castle for you while you and your men wait at the gate. "

"How would-"Teagan looked bewildered.

"Call it a gift from the fade. Now, give me the ring or do I need to blast that entrance up?"

Teagan looked uncertain for a moment before pulling out a thick ring to Silveras.

The four of them managed to found the trap door after a while finding it. The hallway was dark so it took them some more time to find a torch and light it up as Silveras unfortunately didn't know how to create fire to save his ass. They didn't need it for long though, because the next corridor had light and of course the fucking walking dead who just couldn't stay dead. At least they were only a few.

"Hello?" A hopeful voice, Jowan's voice, rang out "Who's there? Is there anyone alive out there?"


	9. Chapter 9

Jowan was nothing like the game described at all. While he was human, he was elegant. His skin was snow white, and it suited his black hair and pouty lips. The only thing that didn't suit his face was his overgrown stubble after days without shaving. He looked uncertainly at them, said softly:

"Wait…you're not one of the arlessa's guards. Are you from outside of the castle?"

"Who are you? Why are you all locked up?" Cailan asked curiously at the mage.

"I'm Jowan. I-I'm locked up because I have done a terrible crime." Jowan admitted shamefully "I-I guess it that you haven't talked to the arlessa yet?"

"Oh, we talked to that bitch alright, but I knocked her out when she think she had the right to slap me." Silveras said dryly.

"You knock her up?" Jowan widened his eyes, staring at Silveras in wonder "Well, can't say that I'm not happy that she was beaten. Nasty piece of work, that woman."

"Hey, that's my aunt you're talking about." Cailan said indignantly.

"And she's a bigoted bitch who slapped me and abused Alistair." Silveras countered "Which one is more important to you, your bitchy aunt or your poor abused brother?"

Cailan shut his mouth, chose to sulk instead of answering. Even in his heart, he knew that Alistair was far more important than his least favorite aunt. Duncan shook his head at the pair of them, turned his attention to Jowan:

"Do you know what happened here, Jowan? Is arl Eamon safe? Why the castle's overrun from undead?"

"I don't know why the castle is overrun with undead. I've already been here when the whole thing happened. About the arl…I really don't think he could survive…a-at least that is what Loghain told me about the poison."

"You poisoned arl Eamon?" Cailan cried in furry. He might be angry with his uncle now but it didn't mean he want him dead, especially under the hand of that traitor Loghain.

"I'm not proud of my deed." Jowan sighed "Poisoning arl Eamon was what I was hired to do when she took me in to tutor his son."

"And the walking corpse?" Duncan prompted.

"I-I know it looks suspicious, but I'm not responsible for the creatures and the killing in the castle. I was already imprisoned when it began." Jowan desperately grasping the bars of his cell, showing the deep cuts which haven't been healed yet on his fingers "At first, Lady Isolde came here with her men, demanding that I reserve what I'd done. I thought she meant my poisoning the arl. That's the first I heard about the walking corpses. She thought I'd summon a demon to torment her family and destroy Recliffe."

Jowan then released his grasp on the bars, looked at his hand, and said softly:

"She…had me tortured. There were nothing I could do or say that could appease her. So they left me to rot."

"But why did she hire you to tutor her son?" Cailan questioned.

"Connor is a mage." Silveras put his foot in before Jowan could let out anything about his blood magic "Isolde didn't want her son be taken away by the Circle, so she seek out an apostate to teach him magic so that he could hide it"

"Connor? A mage?" Cailan said in disbelief "I can't believe it."

"Could it be Connor the one who release the demons?" Mahariel asked "there's certainly some kind of magic involved in this."

"Not Connor, but an abomination." Silveras countered "Connor was already possessed by a Desire demon."

"Great. So what now?" Cailan threw his hands up in frustration. He never saw or encountered an abomination before so his knowledge about it and how to deal with it was next to none existence.

"Release Jowan, We need him to come with us." Silveras said, pointed at Jowan

"Are you sure that we should release him?" Cailan protested, glared at Jowan slightly.

"Jowan is the one who teach Connor magic so he would know how to counter the magic Connor used. Besides, we will meet a revenant at the front yard and I doubt my magic could be enough to back you up. So his magic is useful."

"I-I don't know about fighting…" Jowan began nervously.

"Jowan, if you can escaped the whole deal of templars when you're in the circle, you'll be fine when dealing with the demons." Silveras said bluntly "and before you ask, yes I know your story in the Circle. I met Surana after all."

"Jayde?" Jowan blinked owlishly "Wait? He still alive? Is he okay?"

"He's fine. But I will tell you later. We have a demon to kill." Silveras said, use a touch of his magic to open the lock of the prison. One good thing when he stayed at _that place_ was that he could leant to use magic that didn't meant to have in Thedas.

"Magic can do that?" Cailan asked, looked interest. Even Mahariel could not hide his intrigue.

"Later." Duncan interrupted "We need to move."

"_Undead, undead, skeleton, undead, undead…" _Silveras thought as their party moved up to the left wings of the castle. He and Jowan stayed behind the two warrior, occasionally casted spells to weaken the enemies or made a final kill. It seemed that Jowan was very skilled in magic even without using his blood magic. The only thing he lacked was his courage during the battle and his anxiousness toward the threat to be made tranquil or worse, death by the hand of Templar if he failed. It made him wonder how many mages in the Circle had been in Jowan's shoes and faced the fate worse than death.

When moving to the kitchen of the castle, Silveras suddenly be hit by a strange feeling. It was not a kind of feeling that made him felt threaten, but a sense of sadness and affection. Silveras staggered lightly at the strange feelings, very confused and slightly freaked out. He started to wonder if his sanity had finally slipping.

"What's wrong?" Duncan asked, glanced back to Silveras.

"I think I start to get crazy." Silveras muttered, and scowled when Mahariel snorted.

"You've already been crazy the first time we met."

"It's must be because of the air around here." Jowan said anxiously "The veil is very thin here. We mages would tend to be very sensitive around it."

"It could be." Silveras admitted, though he knew that it was something else "We must hurry. I'm not comfortable around here."

Around three in the afternoon did they finally resurface at the courtyard. They could see a line of people outside the main gate and unfortunately Isolde was one of them. Silveras could see a small glimmer of the revenant across them with some of its undead bodyguard. The mage knew from experience that they could not fight the revenant with only fou-five of them. So they needed to open the gate before the revenant can have a chance to stop them.

"Theron." Silveras whispered "When I use magic, you will immediately open the gate for Teagan and his knights. We cannot fight against them without being overwhelmed."

Mahariel nodded, showing that he understood and the battle began. Silveras charged them with his tempest spell and Duncan back him up with Cailan. Jowan stayed far away from the battle, occasionally used his healing spell to heal the injured. His healing spell was weaker than Surana but it still helped them a great deal in the battle. Teagan and his knights quickly joined the battle to fight against the Revenant, thought it still took them hours to take down that damn demon.

Silveras couldn't see Isolde everywhere during the battle, so he guessed she would have slipped up into the castle when they fought. He never trusted that woman, and he wouldn't want her to warn her dearest son about their sudden attack so he quickly follow the Orlesian back to the castle, his companion and Teagan at his heels. They found Isolde in the main halls, with a small child at her side.

"So these are our visitors?" The boy, Connor spoke with his demonic voice "The one you told me about, mother?"

Isolde slightly flinched when she was addressed "Y-Yes, Connor."

"And this the one who defeated my soldiers? The ones sent to reclaim my village?" The boy sneered at Mahariel, made his eyebrow shot up "And now it's staring at me! What is it, mother? I can't see it well enough."

"This is an elf, Connor." Isolde said with her gentle voice, glancing fearfully at Silveras "You…You've seen elf before. We have them, here, in the castle."

"Oh, I remember!" The boy chuckled darkly "I have their ears cut off and fed to the dogs! They chewed for hours! Shall I send it to the kennel, mother?"

Mahariel glinted dangerously at the boy, his hands already drew out his bow. One more word from the boy and the elf would use it to kill him, child or not.

Isolde visibly paled at words, kneeling besides Connor and pleaded:

"C-Connor, I beg you. Don't hurt anyone!"

Connor, now his eyes returned to normal and seemed to be in great pain, muttered softly with his childish voice:

"M-Mother? What…What happening? Where am I?"

"Oh, thank the maker! Connor? Connor, can you hear me?" Isolde attempt to reach out for Connor but as quickly as he returned to normal, the demon took hold of him

"Get away from me, fool woman! You are beginning to bore me."

Teagan, now that he finally reached inside the main hall, gasped at the sight of them:

"Maker, What's happening here?"

"Warden." Isolde returned her attention to Silveras "Please…don't hurt my son. He's not responsible for what he does."

"He's already rotten inside." Mahariel scoffed, not in mood for mercy.

"No, don't say that." Isolde sobbed.

"We're not supposed to kill him, are we?" Cailan said uncomfortably "I mean, even he was possessed, he's still a child."

Silveras chose not to answer Cailan, instead sent force of magic to catch Connor. He was not in mood to talk with a crazy demon. The demon inside Connor seemed to notice Silveras's attack, he snarled and summon his possessed guards and a mass of monster from the fade to fight against Silveras and escaped. Compared to those dreadful undead, these enemies were no match against Silveras since it didn't striking on his fear. The mage happily fried them up with his lightning ability.

"Please, Connor's not responsible for this! There must be some way we can save him." Isolde pleaded at they processed to go find that damnable child, blocking their way.

"I see no way this can end happily." Mahariel said coldly.

"I'm sorry, my lady,"Jowan stepped out from his hiding at the door, said softly "but Connor has become an abomination. He's no longer your son."

"You! You did this to Connor." Isolde shrieked, lunged toward Jowan but was hold down by Silveras's magic.

"I didn't." Jowan protested, shrunk further at Isolde's glare "I didn't summon any demon, I told you. Please, if you'll let me help…"

"Help?" Isolde snarled "You betrayed me! I brought you here to help my son, and in return you poisoned my husband."

Teagan gently placed his hand on her shoulder, calming her down "This is the mage you spoke of? Didn't you say he was in dungeon?"

"He was." Isolde gritted "I assumed the creatures had killed him by now. He must have been set free."

"I did, and I stand by my choice." Silveras said firmly "Unless you want to your son be killed, Jowan is the only one that can help Connor now."

"I thought there is no way to free the hostage from the demon without killing the abomination?" Duncan asked, confused.

"There is another option, though I loathe to offer it." Jowan said rectulantly "A mage can confront the demon in the fade, without hurting Connor himself."

"You can enter the fade then? Without hurting my boy?" Isolde looked like she could kiss Jowan right now, if it weren't for the fact this man was the same one who hurt her husband.

"No, but I can enable another mage to do so. It normally requires lyrium and several mages, but I have…blood magic."

"You're a blood mage?" Cailan questioned, looked at Jowan with uncertainty. Unlike Alistair who was almost brain-washed by the chantry, Cailan only heard about blood mage in tales and story so he didn't have the same prejudge as his brother. Still, he was wary of the other man.

"What different does that make?" Teagan asked.

"Lyrium provides the power for the ritual. But I can take that power from someone's life energy. This ritual requires a lot of it, however. All of it, in fact."

"So…someone must die? Someone must be sacrificed?"

"Yes, and then we send another mage in the fade. I can't enter because I'm doing the ritual. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. It's…not much of an option."

Now everyone turned to look at Silveras, made him blanched

"What?" Silveras asked.

"You're the only mage besides Jowan, so I want your opinion about it." Duncan empathized the opinion's part.

"Please, I'm willing to sacrifice my life to do this ritual. Please, save him." Isolde begged, nearly kneeling on her knee.

"What? Isolde, are you mad? Eamon would never allow this!" Teagan cried.

"Why bother? We don't even know the ritual could work, it would be better if we just kill the boy and be done with it." Mahariel put in his two cent.

"Theron! He's just a child." Cailan protested.

"Connor is blameless to this." Isolde agreed with Cailan "He should not have to pay the price."

Silveras really wanted to agree with Mahariel just to see how the bitch would have felt when someone dear to her get taken away, like what she had done to Alistair, but he didn't want Cailan to be crossed at him. Besides, he was not that heartless to just sit by and watch an innocent (but foolish) child get possessed by blast demon.

"Alright." Silveras sighed "As much as I want you die, I have another option that could save the two of you."

"You do?" Teagan asked hopefully.

"Our fellow grey warden, Jayde Surana and Alistair, are in the Circle right now. If we can send words to them in time, they could get some help from the Circle mages to do the ritual with lyrium."

"I will send words to them immediately." Teagan said hastily, quickly ran out of the hall.

"Thank you, oh, thank you." Isolde said gratefully, tears of relief flew through her eyes.

"I'm only doing this for my friend here and Alistair." Silveras said stiffly, gestured to Cailan "If it weren't for them, I would have choose Theron's option."

Cailan grinned at Silveras, bummed his shoulder gratefully. Mahariel only rolled his eyes and Duncan shook his head fondly. Jowan looked at Silveras in admiration and sadness. The young mage seemed to withdraw to himself.

"I would better to lock up where Connor is hiding, though." Duncan commented "We won't want the assault last night happen again."

"I-I can fix the tear of the veil." Jowan offered "If the veil is fixed, the demon won't be able to summon the monster again unless it found another willing mage to break the veil."

"It would be great. I will leave it to you then." Duncan nodded "I and the rest will clear the remains of the undead in the castle."

"I will help you, Jowan." Silveras quickly offered, not willing to face those dreadful undead again.

It was near midnight that Jowan and Silveras could finally fixed the veil, and Duncan had already cleared the rest of undead in the castle. Connor room remain locked from the outside until the Circle mages arrive. Now, Silveras, Duncan, Cailan and Mahariel all sat in dining room, eating their late meal. Jowan had retired to bed and without Isolde or Teagan here, Cailan and Duncan could finally drop their disguise and returned to their normal face.

"I'm just wondering, Silveras. Why your magic is physically weaker when you fight against the undead?" Cailan asked curiously "Your magic usually is stronger than that."

Silveras flushed, looked uncomfortable. He might thought them as his friends after months fighting with them, he was still unsure about telling them piece of his past. Especially something as personal as that.

"I'm just don't like undead? They are creepy, you know." Silveras trailed off.

"You're scared of some walking bones when you can fight against darkspawn?" Mahariel said skeptically.

"I-It's just remind me of my past, you know." Silveras protested "You don't know how scare it was when you were left behind for them to kill when you were only a child"

"What's happened?" Cailan asked, concerned.

"I-I…I was young and stupid." Silveras admitted, sighed heavily, knowing that they at least deserved to know the truth if they continued to fight together for the blight "I was eight back then, and was used as a test subjects."

"What is test subject?" Duncan frowned.

"Test subject is something or someone that people use to experiments their new equipment or research their body." Silveras patiently explained "Some scie-scholars want to find out why mages can have magic and how it draw the demon from the fade so they bought me."

"Bought you?" Mahariel asked slowly "You were a slave back then?"

"No, I wasn't. My parents sold me to them when they knew I have magic." Silveras said bitterly.

There were no pity on his friends' faces, which Silveras was thankful for, but they all looked stricken at the bomb the mage had dropped. Mahariel looked like he wanted to kill someone, seeing as how close his hands were to his daggered. Duncan looked passive, but there was a faint determined glint on his eyes. Cailan, he didn't know how to describe Cailan. Cailan looked horror struck, and his eyes showed a protective fire that he never seen before, not even when Cailan talked about his duty to Ferelden. It warmed his heart to know that his friends care about him and for once in his life, Silveras finally poured his secret out, knowing that no one in this room could use it against him.

"One day, the scholars want to know if their theories to raise people from death was true so they order me to do as they instructed. I did so, but the corpse didn't turn out as they expected. It was moving, but the flesh started to rot away until there was nothing but its black skin and bones. It was until it pinned me underneath it that I knew that it want eat me alive. And the scholars did nothing. They only looked at me as if I was some failure and ordered the se-templars to kill both me and that monster. I was lucky to survive that encounter."

Silveras didn't know that he was shaking but he did felt a warm hand placed on his shoulder and Duncan looked at Silveras with comfort smile. Cailan looked like he would be sick, muttered furiously under his breathe about justice and revenge. Mahariel stayed on his seat, but one look at him and Silveras knew that the elf would gladly kill anyone on Silveras ordered, as long as he gave a name.

"Silveras, I promise you. You will never suffer like that in my kingdom as long as I'm alive." Cailan said firmly "I don't care if the grand cleric order that herself. Everyone who dared to do that to you will have to go through me."

Silveras flushed, looked uncomfortable yet pleased at the gesture of affection. Noone had ever cared for him like that aside doctor Sandra. She was the only one in Earth who ever showed him what mother love was like when she was taking care of him, including showered him with gifts and hugs. And she was the only Silveras missed when he transferred here, because he never had the chance to say goodbye and thank you her. If it weren't for her, he wouldn't never have a chance to play Dragon Age and he would never meet Mahariel and Duncan and Cailan.

"Thank you, Cailan." Silveras said in gratitude, and Cailan grinned at him.

"Want to play wicked grace before we sleep?" Cailan said cheerfully, tried to make Silveras focus on something else.

"You're on, Cailan. Just don't be a sore loser when you lose." Silveras smirked.

It turned out not only Cailan lost but Silveras managed to lose all his clothe, too. Mahariel was merciless when he was playing Wicked Grace with his cheating way and Duncan certainly didn't want to be naked in front of his fellow Warden so the poor victims during the game were Cailan and Silveras, who were too naïve to play with the two cunning rogues.

"I believe that your last protection is coming off now." Mahariel smirked, ogled at Cailan's large frame. Silveras had to admit Cailan was really hot now that he saw his muscle chest. Unlike Cailan, Silveras was smaller, though he also had muscle.

"Come on, Theron. It's embarrassing." Cailan whined "The servants could pass by any minute now."

"Not my problem." Mahariel shrugged nonchalantly "Now, be a good puppy and strip down or do you want me to do this for you?"

Cailan blushed furiously, his adam apple popped up and down. Silveras had some suspicion that Cailan might have a crush toward the Dalish elf, seeing how close they were during the journey, but he wasn't going to pry. As long as Cailan and Mahariel were happy, he didn't care whether they liked each other or not. (although there was still a matter of a certain _queen_ in Denerim)

"Now, now Theron. Don't tease his majesty too much." Duncan gently intervened "We should get to bed anyway."

"You're no fun, Duncan." Mahariel huffed, then glanced at Cailan "Next time, I will see you naked."

Cailan gulped, hugged himself as the elf passed him with the most wicked smile Silveras had ever seen. It seemed that the whiskey they had been drinking during the game somehow changed Mahariel's personality though the Dalish elf didn't showed any kind of drunk.

Silveras was still staying at the library to have some light reading when both Duncan and Cailan had returned to their own rooms. And not until some servant caught him did Silveras decided he could turned himself to sleep, too. But before he could take any further step, a searing pain shot through his body, and he could felt his body was drained of mana. Someone roughly hold him on the hands and banged him on the shield. He could faintly saw the familiar face in front of, the one that he had argued back to the village, and another knight surrounded by blue light.

"_Templar."_ That was the last thing Silveras knew before he succumbed into blackness.

...To be continue...

Jmg94: thank you for your praise. This is my first time writing an english fanfic and also the first time I post it on so I'm afraid I'm clueless in how to find a beta for my fiction, but I will try to find one. Thanks again for your review and suggestion :)


	10. Chapter 10

"_Why am I always be unconscious in the most unfortunate time?"_ Silveras thought wryly when he slowly woke up from his slumber. It seemed he was kidnapped by some Templars who thought he was an apostate who escaped the Circle's clutch. He tried to shift his body, but then groaned as the pain on his body. He'd never been smited before and it was totally bogus to feel one. The only curious thing that he noticed the Templars didn't body bind him, especially his hand. It was as if they didn't care he would run away or they was in short of time to actually bind him. Whatever the case, Silveras was glad to have his hands free. He might not be able to do magic yet (He tested that, but it was nothing but a little spark on his finger), but he still knew how to fence and use weapon if he could find one.

Silveras stayed in his place until he had enough energy to move without hurting. He then slowly crawled out the made-shift tent that he was put in when he was unconscious. Funny how the Templars seemed to care about an apostate like him.

…Or maybe they did not and was unfortunately killed by someone who actually cared.

In front of the tent was a pool a dried blood with some armor and valuable things carefully sorted out by the rock. The campfire was bubbling with soup and fortunately he didn't see any kind of human bones inside that soup. Whoever saved him, must have been around here somewhere. As in cue, an all too familiar Antiva voice rang through his ear from behind:

"Ah, you're awake!"

Silveras gulped, slowly turned his head around. In front of him was a so familiar face that he had known so well. Though the elf looked taller than he expected and his jaws were stronger, there was no mistake that it was Zevran Arainai, Antivan Crow and future companion for the Grey Warden. But Zevran wasn't supposed to be here. He was supposed to plan a trap for Surana and Alistair and he sure as hell did not become some kind of hero and whoop down to save a poor little mage from Templars. Was he somehow messed up the future by being kidnapped by the Templars?

"While I understand I'm very handsome, I never see anyone who stares at me with open mouth like that." Zevran said amusedly, stalking over Silveras. The Antivan elf was only two or three inches shorter than him, and his body was more built than he expected, since the game described that Zevran was rather petty for an elf.

"Although" The elf continued sultrily "I can have some use to this mouth, preferably in the tent."

"As much as I want to," Silveras said, slowly stepped two steps back, seeing how close Zevran was to him "I prefer not to be assassinated during my fun, especially when my partner is a Crow."

"Oh?" Zevran raised his eyebrow, looked interested "And how did you know I'm a Crow? I never said anything about that, did I?"

"It's not like an Antivan refugee would come here in Ferelden, especially when a blight is coming." Silveras challenged back "And certainly not many refugees that can take down well-trained Templars."

"True." Zevran hummed "thought those Templars are not that difficult to kill. They are too slow and rely too much on their Templar abilities."

"Well, they are the Chantry's prize warriors. What else can you expect?" Silveras cocked his head and crossed his arms. He could feel his magic return to him right now and it calmed him somewhat that he wasn't that vulnerable to the assassin. Zevran might be a trustworthy guy but that was when he was recruited by Surana. Now, he was nothing but a professional killer who didn't mind to bloodbath himself.

"I like you." Zevran laughed "Not many mages can speak to Templars like that, though being a warden may give you that arrogance right?"

Silveras tensed, his fingers sparkled lightly, ready to fight when it was needed. But when Silveras saw Zevran hadn't made his move, he calmed down somewhat and narrowed his eyebrow in thought. If Zevran wanted to kill him, he would have done that when Silveras was unconscious, so that mean Zevran either let him alive to use a bait…or he never even thought about killing him. That's right, Silveras once remembered a dialogue in which Zevran said he only took the mission in killing the Grey Wardens was that he could die and see Rinna. He didn't count on the fact the Warden would let him alive.

"You do know that I can blast you in pieces if I want to, right?" Silveras tested.

"Indeed you could." Zevran nodded, looked as passive as ever. He never once took his daggers on his back out for protection.

"Yet you haven't reached your daggers, yet?" Silveras pointed out.

"Does it matter?" Zevran shrugged.

That confirmed Silveras's suspicion. The mage sighed, banished the sparkle on his hand and looked at Zevran:

"You really want to die, don't you?"

"I'm not sure what you mean, Warden." Zevran said stiffly, his body tensed.

"I know many things about you, Zevran." Silveras said finally "An unwilling assassin who did nothing but trying to survive in the Crow, a lover who still mourns for his old love. A hopeless man who have no reason to live"

Unlike everyone else, Zevran was the only one that Silveras wanted to gain his approval, seeing that the assassin was very loyal to who the elf trusted and Silveras wanted to make sure the Zevran would at least stay loyal to him and not betray him and his companions during the Blight seeing that he was quite useful in eyes-dropping and gaining information. What else to get Zevran's loyalty besides being a completely truthful to him.

Zevran looked as flabbergasted as an elf could look when something impossible happened in his eyes. In some way, he looked cute when he do that…well, as cute as an assassin could look anyway. When Antivan elf recovered from his shock, he now looked at Silveras as if the mage was some trophy put out for a show, which was rather unnerving.

"How much do you know about me?"

"Enough to know that you're a good man at heart, Zevran." Silveras said gently "Zevran, I know you're skeptical at me right now. But I mean you no harm. Hell, I didn't even mean to meet you this way, but I need you to trust me that having your life taken away is not an option. Your life is bad, I take it, but there still something worthy for you to live so don't give up on yourself now."

Zevran listened silently as Silveras gave a speech about life and death, then his lip quirked up and he let out a teasing smile:

"You know, if you want to have sex with me. You could say so, amigo. It's not like I will reject such a handsome man like you."

Silveras nearly bit his tongue then he heard Zevran's flirt. Only the Antivan elf would make a joke like that in this situation.

"You know, I don't even know why I bother to convince you. You're too full of yourself to actually commit suicide." Silveras threw his hand exasperatedly, which earned a hearty laugh from said elf.

Just like the game carried out, Surana and Alistair got themselves inside the trap that Zevran carefully planned out, though this was no longer the case of life and death but rather than a bet between Zevran and Silveras. Zevran was confident that he would manage to capture Surana and Alistair even he wouldn't kill him so Silveras dared him to plan a trap for them to walk in. If they failed, Silveras would help him to cut all ties of the Crow so that he could escape, but if he failed, he would have to help them finish the blight. It was a fair deal so Zevran didn't complaint, though by the look of his face when his men was slaughtered that Silveras knew the Antivan was deeply regretted about their bet. Well, too late for that.

"What should we do with him?" Alistair asked, pointed at the unconscious elf. Surana's party never noticed Silveras was on the cliff behind the tree near them, though Leliana (judging by the shocking red hair) did curiously glanced at the mage's hiding place one or two times.

"Let him alive for now. We need some answer." Surana's voice still the same, but now he had some kind of underlining command whenever he said. Silveras was right when he thought Surana would make a good leader.

They woke Zevran up, and the Antivan elf blinked dazely at them, before realized that he was still alive (not that Silveras would ever let him die of course).

"hmm, I see that I'm still alive, not that I'm expected to live after my failed mission, anyway." Zevran hummed, not for once felt panic.

"That can be easily justified." Surana said calmly.

"Thank you, but I still love my life very much." Zevran grinned "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Zevran Arainai, Zev to my friends, formerly Antivan Crow and now a prisoner."

"Antivan Crow?" Surana quirked his eyebrow.

"You don't know about the Crow." Zevran looked affronted.

"Oh, I know about them." Leliana piped up, explained what exactly was the Crow is to Surana and Alistair. The elf mage nodded, looked thoughtful and continued to interrogate the Antivan. Zevran basically told him about the same thing just like in the game, except for some minor change:

"Although, I didn't intend to kill you when I attack you."

"You actually want us to believe that?" Morrigan, the dark hair witch with her unique choice of cloth, scoffed at the elf, and Alistair, for once, agreed with her.

"You may not believe me." Zevran shrugged "but you should believe this one. He is, after all, one of you."

The misfit band of Surana looked totally confused until they heard a voice from the cliff:

"You lost, Zevran."

"It wasn't fair when they have three mages in their group, Amigo." Zevran protested feebly.

"I don't care, you still lost." Silveras jumped down from the cliff, using his magic to soften his land to the ground. He grinned at the dumb stuck look on Surana and Alistair's face "Good to see you again, my friend."

"Silveras." Both of the grey wardens cried, ran toward him. Alistair almost broke his ribs when the Templar pulled him into a hug while Surana laughed softly, looked significantly younger than before.

"I'm glad you're okay, my friend." Surana said, patting his shoulder "Theron never believed you died in Ostagar, and I really should believe him."

"Oh I met Theron when I came to Lothering. He was quite pissed at me when he found me. Almost broke my nose." Silveras said, remembered how he and Mahariel managed to find each other.

"And you deserved that." Alistair said grumpily "Honestly, what are you thinking about fighting those darkspawns alone? You're a mage not a fucking warrior."

"Hey, just because you're Templar that doesn't mean you see me as some kind of delicate flower." Silveras huffed "I'm perfectly fine on my own."

"Say the man who get kidnapped by Templars." Zevran quipped.

"You got caught by Templars?" Surana frowned, looked concerned "Are you alright? Was Theron with you that day? Is he okay? I hope he's okay. Templars tends to hurt anyone who tries to protect apostates."

"We're talking about the same Mahariel, right? The one who managed to attack Flemeth and still alive?" Alistair said dubiously "If it was him, I think the Templars should be the one you worry about."

Silveras blinked, stared at Alistair blankly. Since when Mahariel attacked Flemeth, and why the maker he would do that. That woman was a high dragon in disguise for goddamn sake. He really should have a serious talk to the elf, less he ran somewhere and get himself killed. The elf and Cailan were so alike in this prospect that it was frightening.

"As much as I like the view down here, can anybody untie me? It starts to hurt my skin." Zevran complaint.

"I thought you like to be tied up." Silver couldn't help but jest.

"Preferably in private, amigo. Not in front of many people." Zevran said "I may be a whore, but I still like to have my dignity, you know."

"Ha. We'll see about that." Silveras muttered, kneeled down and untied Zevran. In meanwhile, Surana and Alistair were being peppered by their companions.

"Jayde, who is this guy?" Leliana asked hesitantly, looked at Silveras and turned to Alistair, then back to Silveras.

"His name is Silveras, he is also a Grey Warden. We thought that he died in Osagar but it seems he's alive afterall." Surana said "Silveras, this is Leliana, a lay sister in Lothering who agreed to help us end the blight. Besides her is Sten, a Qunari. Next to Alistair is an enchanter of the Circle, Wynne."

"I remember you" Silveras nodded, gave out a small smile "I never had time to thank you for giving me tips back in Ostagar. It saved my life that day."

"Giving you-oh my, you're the young man back then?" Wynne gasped, finally recognized Silveras "You had changed so much. Last time I saw you, your hair is blond."

"Yeah, well, the joining did that to you." Silveras rubbed his head sheepishly.

"Correctly it only happened on you, which, by the way, is very creepy if you may ask." Alistair stated "I thought some demon somehow had posed my body, but less manly than me of course."

"Well this demon happened to be in Redcliffe three days ago and found some stories really embarrassing about you, chantry boy. Do you want me to tell them all?" Silveras jested back and Alistair quickly shut his mouth, pulled his hands up in surrender.

"hmm, I thought you're familiar. We met back when you recovered your documents, is that right?" Morrigan drawled.

"Pleasant to meet you, Morrigan. How is your mother?" Silveras asked.

"She's fine, if that's what you mean, thought your little elf wasn't so grateful when he met her. I suggest you will teach that elf some manner." Morrigan said haughtily.

"_Providing that he didn't beat me into pub first."_ Silveras thought wryly, remembered the Dalish elf violent nature.

"Say, are you the one who send us the letter asked for the Circle's help toward a possessed child?" Surana asked "When we receive that note, we thought that Theron somehow reached Redcliffe and managed to find problem there."

"Yeah, I did, with Theron and two of my companions, who you two knew very well." Silveras said, and turned to Zevran "Speaking of companions, I believe someone own me a deal."

"Oh come now, amigo, it's hardly fair when I have to face three angry mages at once." Zevran pouted cutely.

"Life is hardly fair, Zevran." Silveras said winningly "Now, be a dear for me a help us win this blight okay."

"You, my warden, is a very devious man if I may say." Zevran sighed "Very well, I hereby pledge my oath of loyalty to you, until such a time as you choose to release me from it. I am your man, without reservation…this, I swear."

"Are you sure we should bring him along? I mean, he attacked us." Alistair said, giving Zevran an evil eyes.

"Well, if you want to feel better, I didn't want to kill you, just want to win the bet against your fellow warden."

"You What?!" Alistair gasped, stared at Silveras in disbelief "You bet on whether we can fight him or not? How could you, Silveras?"

"I'm sorry?" Silveras said sheepishly, guitily shifted his feet "I just want to him to join us. He saved me from the Templars, even when he knew I'm a grey warden. And I know you two can beat him in a duel, so I offer him something that wouldn't make thing more complicated. I don't want to pick side, you know."

Silveras made sure that he mustered the best puppy dog eyes toward Surana and Alistair. He could hear Morrigan scoffed but he pointly ignored in order to fake his sorrow. Silveras could see Alistair and Leliana's resolve had already broken, and Wynne was not far behind. He knew that Surana was far too smart to fall into Silveras's trap but as long as he had backed up, he could easily won this argument. Thankfully the elf mage never questioned his motive, instead gently patted Alistair's shoulder and said:

"We're in need of allies right now, and Silveras owns him a debt. It would be cruel to force him to choose."

"Alright, alright. You have a point." Alistair grumbled "Still, if we're in dire need of help, I suggest we knock the doors and send flower."

Surana's band alongside with Silveras and Zevran started their journey back to Redcliffe. During the journey, Silveras finally had heard what happened with the Circle. Surana, as Silveras had already guessed, cleaned all the abominations off the Circle and sided with the mages. When they wanted to resumed their journey to Redcliffe, they got wind of the urgent plead for help from Bann Teagan, however. Therefore, they had no choice to leave the boats for the Circle mages to sail through lake Calenhad and reached Redcliffe in time while they traveled by feet. (Thus solve the mystery why the band cannot use boat to travel between Redcliffe and Kinloch hold in the game).

When they stopped to camp for the night, Silveras wandered around, mainly stayed out of the other's businesses. He, liked Surana, didn't have a single idea what to do when camping. While Surana was willing to learn, Silveras kept to himself, because he knew from experience that when he tried to help, the result was rather disastrous (almost burnt Cailan's tent once). Speaking of Cailan, Silveras wondered if the king and Duncan knew that he was kidnapped. Were they worried, seeing that he was disappeared for four days? Were they somewhere out there looking for him? What about Connor? Silveras didn't know whether Jowan had enough power to keep the possessed child inside that room. It involve a lot of magic and even with his blood magic, he could only be able to sealed the door for two days at most or Jowan would have died from blood lost. Silveras frowned, bit his lips. Irving and the Circle mage should have been in the castle right now since their party was only one day away from Redcliffe. Irving might be kind in Silveras's opinion, but he no doubted would never forgive Jowan for being a blood mage, even if Jowan was a good man in heart. Silveras was supposed to be there, voted for him or at least fenced the templars off until Surana came to Redcliffe (judging by the concerned look on Jowan when he heard about Surana, Silveras knew that the two of them must have been best friend before that blood magic happened) but the plan was ruined when he was kidnapped by Templar.

Templar, the word gave a sour taste in his mouth. Now Silveras had tasted what it felt to be a mage in Templar's mercy, he was more inclined to agree with what Ander-Justice had said back in Dragon Age 2 (or would have said). The Templar had given too much power in controlling the mages that it was no wonder the mages resolved in using blood magic to avenge. Templars did not just smite mages, what they did was cut through the bond the mages had with their magic (also with the fade, if Silveras remembered correctly). By cutting that bond, the Templars had cut the mages' source of energy. The mages would be significantly weaker, sensitive to everything and easier to succumb to decease. Silveras was lucky that he had Zevran around when he was smited, otherwise his defense against the enemy would be next to nothing and that did not bode well to the young mage.

"_I really need to have something to resist that damn smite." _Silveras thought, and then eyeing Alistair. Alistair was a Templar, so he must know about that smiting skill. Silveras wondered if Alistair would willing to smite him so that he could study further about Templar skill. He didn't mind being smited as long as he could figure a way to resist that damn ability. Pain was the least thing he would actually care, seeing as how much time he had been in pain.

"Hey Silveras." Leliana called "Dinner's ready."

"I'm coming." Silveras said, went to sit next to Zevran, as no one had trusted the Antivan elf enough to be comfortable around him. On the left side of Silveras was Alistair, and then Surana. Across him was Leliana and Wynne. Morrigan, of course, chose not to join their small gathering but instead staying near her own camp after taking her meal. Sten just stood there watching. Silveras guessed he would eat later.

"Say, Silveras, are you Alistair's brother?" Leliana asked, after spending five minutes just looking at them.

Her question both made Silveras and Alistair choked on their soup, sputtered indignantly. Their actions were even identical made Surana and the ladies around there snorted.

"He was not." Alistair said, but then paused "I mean, he looks just like me right now because there is an accident during the joining that causes him to change appearance. He didn't even look like me when we first met."

"Are you sure?" Zevran raised his eyebrow "I did know there is some kind of glamour spell that the magister in Tevinter often uses to conceal their own appearances. What if Silveras was under that spell all the time?"

"But he was a mage." Alistair protested "He should have known that there was some kind of spell put on his face."

"If I remembered correctly "Surana interjected "Silveras hadn't even known he was a mage until he stumbled to Mahariel's clan. That's mean he was not even realize what kind of magic was put into him until too late."

"You do remember that Silveras was sitting right here, next to all of you right?" Silveras said dryly, faintly annoyed "Stop talking as if I'm not here."

"Sorry, Silveras." Surana chuckled, his eyes danced with mischief. The elf might be a good leader and mature during the day, but sometimes he would act down right like a child.

"Seriously, you two are so much alike that if your hair was blond, you two could pose like a twin." Leliana gusted "don't you two happen to be twin but separated by birth?"

"As far as I know, I'm the only child that my mother gave birth to after she died." Alistair said, but then he looked at Silveras with calculative eyes.

Silveras knew what the young Templar had been thinking, and he seriously would have thought that himself if he wasn't sure that he was from Earth not Thedas. So, no, Maric could not be his father unless that man somehow managed to screwed up his bitch of a mother in the fade (which was ridiculous even in his thought by the way).

"As far as I know, I was born by a wench who in turn sold me for money." Silveras said dryly.

That shut Leliana up, but Silveras doubted he would like her sympathetic eyes either. He didn't want sympathy because it served him nothing but annoyance. Silveras turned his eyes toward Alistair, asked:

"Alistair, can I ask you a favor?"

"Oh, okay, what?"

"Can you smite me?"

That question caused Alistair once again spit out the soup he had been eating. Rogue, Surana's dog, let out an indignant whine when some the Alistair's food fell on his fur. Surana, Wynne and Leliana sat there gasping open mouth at Silveras like he had grown a second head when Zevran just raised his eyebrow (the elf had been staying with him long enough to know how his slightly insane mind work).

"Are you mad?" Alistair said loudly "Being smited is not something you mage could handle easily. It hurts like hell do you know that."

"Unless you have some kind of secret kink that I didn't know of, I would have thought you will avoid being smited from the near future after being kidnapped by the Templars, no?" Zevran agree with Alistair.

"Don't remind me how much it hurt." Silveras grimaced "And I would avoid being in pain as much as possible but this is a necessary pain. I was not supposed to be catch off guard like that. How am I supposed to help other people when I was easily defeated just by a Templar?"

"Young man, you did not need to beat yourselves up like that." Wynne chided gently "Not even a powerful mage could easily overpower templars' abilities…"

"That's the point, Wynne." Silveras snapped "Loghain knew I and Surana are mages. What if he started to send Templars after us? Surana may be fine, seeing he was already a full Circle mage and grey warden but need I to remind you that I'm an apostate? The Templars do not forgive kindly to apostates, Wynne. I need to be immune with those Templars abilities or the next time I might be executed in Loghain's order or worse, being made tranquil."

"But we can protect you…" Leliana trailed off.

"I was kidnapped under my companion's nose." Silveras pointed out "I cannot always rely on my companions for my burden because it will become a weakness that I will never grow out of it."

Silveras could see Sten nodded in approval for his speech, Leliana looked forlorn and worried, Wynne sighed in resignation, and Surana looked deep in thought. The elf mage finally nodded his head:

"I see your point. Alistair, could you please indulge him?"

"You're not serious, are you?" Alistair asked then groaned at the determined looks on Silveras and Surana's face "Man, you're serious. Who am I kidding?"

"Hmm, well I will not stop you, but don't expect me to come saving you again from the big bag Templar since you technically asked for it." Zevran hummed.

"ah, what could I do without my knight in shining armor." Silveras mock swoon "Perhaps a living pillow in my tent tonight would sooth my broken heart, don't you think?"

"ugh, get a room, guys." Alistair said in discomfort "I'm trying to eat here."

"I thought you like to see it." Silveras blinked innocently "Seeing you're a virgin and need guidance to…"

"Right, I will go rest in my tent right now. Call me when it was my watch." Alistair said quickly, hurriedly retreated to his tent before everything turned even more awkward. The rest of the group (sans Sten and Morrigan) laughed at his retreating form.

They barely reached Redcliffe the next day when they were surrounded by a band of knights wearing Redcliffe crest on their shields. Silveras managed to recognize Ser. Perth was the one who leaded the band.

"Lord Silveras, it's good to see you." Ser. Perth said, climbed down from the horse and bowed. "Your majesty and bann Teagan was very worried.

"_So Cailan's identity was out, huh?"_ Silveras thought, lifted his hand indicated that the knight no longer needed to bow. He addressed Ser. Perth:

"What's happening in Redcliffe, Ser. Perth?"

"After you…disappeared. Your companions were in uproar. Hunter Mahariel was so furious that he almost broke the wall with his bare fist." Ser. Perth said with a hint of fear "His highness was taking charge of everything and sent order to investigate who kidnapped you. Then the abomination suddenly tried to take down the magic ward you set up back then. The malifecar was using his blood magic trying to hold the shield until the Circle mages came."

"A malifecar?" Alistair said in disbelief "helping against an abomination?"

"Not all malifecars are bad, Alistair." Silveras said absent-mindedly, remembered Anders-Justice "Some of them were condemned because they were just trying to survive from the injustice for the mages in general."

"Well, the malificar's spell certainly helpful in this matter." Ser. Perth grunted "At least he pointed us to you and not some blighted hole full of darkspawn."

"Very well, then. Take us inside the castle." Silveras ordered, looked at sight of Redcliffe castle far away.

The real battle had begun.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11: the fade and that goddamn demon

"Silveras, it's good to see you again. You gave us quite a fright when you disappeared like that." Cailan cried, gave Silveras a good nature hug.

It was rather confusing and awkward when the blond haired man did this to him because he could feel how tight he was when he hugged him and he also could felt a sense of hurt and resentment washed over him, indicated that Alistair had seen them and was feeling left out. It was a surprised really, when Silveras and Alistair realized that they could sense each other feelings. It came when this morning after they sparred. Alistair was rather frightened when he could felt unfamiliar emotion ran through his mind, just exactly how Silveras felt back to the kitchen in Redcliffe castle. Wynne said that there was some kind of mind link between the two of them which allowed them to feel emotion against each other. When they panic and asked she to remove the bond, Surana amusedly informed them that it was a natural bond, not caused by magic, and often happened in twin or soul mates. It took all of Silveras's willpower not to snap at the red haired woman when Leliana discussed the possibility that he and Alistair was twin for the third time. Leliana was a good woman, but she really got on his nerve right now.

"I really should buy a leash for you." Mahariel muttered, crossed his arms "That way you will never jump into trouble without back up anymore."

"Say the man who attacked the witch of the wild." Silveras shot back.

Surana and Alistair were quite stunned when they came face to face with who they thought they never saw again. In Alistair's case, the young warrior was hugging Duncan tightly and babbling about how he was glad to see the warden commander (almost made Duncan unconscious for not having enough air to breathe) while Surana just smiled politely at them, his focus remained solely on the young mage behind Cailan.

"Jowan." Surana said softly "Why are you here?"

"I-I messed up again." Jowan said rather sheepishly, rubbed his neck.

"Really, Jowan? Really?" Surana asked with his desperate voice "What did you do now? Certainly it could not be worse than using blood magic?"

"That mage used poison on my husband and summon on my son. And you saying that it's not worse than using blood magic?" Lady Isolde said hostilely, her nose on the air when she looked at Surana. It seemed now that she knew her son's life would no longer in threat, she immediately returned to her obnoxious Orlesian attitude.

Surana just sighed in irritate and and pinched Jowan's cheeks, hard.

"Maybe I should freeze you with my cone of cold just to keep you out of trouble." The elf mage said "Maker knows you had given me enough trouble."

"I'm sor-ouch, Jayde, it's hurt." Jowan whined, rubbing his sore cheek. Surana slightly narrowed his eyes when he saw fade scars on Jowan's bare wrist but decided not to comment, instead turned his head to the old man that Silveras'd never seen before next to bann Teagan

"First Enchanter, I see you've arrived safely."

"I'm glad you come here early." Irving, now he knew for sure, nodded his head, stroke his beard "I was afraid we're too late back then when we arrived to Redcliffe. The demon was growing stronger and if we wait for a few more days the young child would fully turn to abomination."

"I see, so where is that child, then?" Surana asked "We need to ward his hiding place so that the demon cannot interrupt the ritual."

"Jowan already did that." Irving frowned lightly "as much as I despite his blood magic, his ward was strong enough to hold the demon off for a day, enough for us to do the ritual."

"Then I say we better be done with it." Surana said "No time to waste."

"Very well. I need you to choose a mage to go to the fade and confront the demon." Irving said.

"Jowan can do that." Silveras offered. "It is his chance to atone for his crime."

"You're so easily trusting, young man." Irving frowned "No matter how Jowan claimed, the fact that he's a blood mage never change."

"I for once don't care if he was a blood mage or not." Silveras crossed his arms "Jowan may have some terrible decisions, but I know he was a good man in heart, and a good Circle mage, too if you and that knight commander Gregoir didn't decide to force him to do the rite of tranquility."

Jowan flushed, looked gratefully at Silveras, even though he was curious about how Silveras knew about his story.

"The chantry law has already indicated that-"

"Bullshit, the chantry had nothing to do with grey warden's business." Silveras scoffed "Unless the grand cleric had evidence that Jowan had indeed killed innocent people to make some kind of human sacrifice ritual, I will not have you speak ill to my companion."

"He was the one who poisoned my husband, how could you pardon him like that?" Isolde shrieked loudly, making Alistair winced.

"I do not pardon him. I just find another suitable punishment for him to redeem himself, which does not involve killing him or making him tranquility."

Before anyone could voice their protests, both Surana and Duncan had voice their opinions rather loudly:

"Enough! We'll decide Jowan's fate later when we already saved Connor and arl Eamon."

"That would be the best." Teagan nodded "Now, grey warden, please choose the mage to process the ritual."

"Very well." Surana nodded, then turned to Silveras "Could you do this, Silveras?"

"Me?" Silveras raised his eyebrow "Why would you choose me? I thought you would have done it for yourself?"

"As much as I want to, I'm a spirit healer. My offensive spells are not that good to kill the demon. Wynne had the same reason as me while Morrigan did not wish to go into the fade so you're the last person I count on. Jowan…even if I believe he would be a good mage, he hasn't passed his harrowing yet and I really didn't want him to get in more trouble than he already had."

"And what makes you think I would willing to do it? For all I know, I would be very happy if that woman" a glare toward Isolde "lost her son."

"If you did, you wouldn't sent us that letter." Surana pointed out.

"Please, Silveras, I would hate to see my cousin die." Cailan said, using his sad puppy eyes to bribe Silveras. It became even worse when Alistair turned his own puppy eyes to him.

_"It's not fair. You're not supposed to look at me like that."_ Silveras mentally screamed, looked uneasily from Cailan to Alistair. His resolve finally crumbled after two or three minutes and he threw his hand in the air desperately:

"Fine, I'll go into that damn fade."

The silly happy smile on Cailan and Alistair's face were both annoying and endearing to Silveras. The mage didn't know why, but he felt compelled to make the two of them happy even if it was such a pain in ass (maybe because that they looked so much like puppies. He knew he had a soft spot for puppies in general).

Silveras stood in the middle of the chanting mages, felt very creep out at the muttering around him. It didn't help him much when he could felt the addicted feelings when he drank the lyrium (it tasted disgusting by the way) and how his head became more and more heavier. The last thing he remembered is that he managed to slum on the chair nearby before was completely pulled into the other world, the fade.

This was the first time Silveras had come to the fade consciously and he was interested in how it works. He could see that everything around here was some kind of illusion mist that gave the human and elf in general about what they desired the most. The only thing seemed to be solid around here was lyrium, but this lyrium was different from the ones he often drink to strengthen his mana. It was more powerful and even heal all of his injuries when he battled some annoying little demon like spirit wolves or wisp of light (just like the game). Silveras would have stayed longer to inspect the fade but he had job to do, so dejectedly he had to tear his attention away from those fascinating thing and returned to his main focus finding the demon inside Connor.

It didn't take Silveras long when he saw the spirit of arl Eamon (he looked exactly like Teagan except he was older and had beard) looking for his son. Silveras stood there, wondered if he could offer comfort to the distressed man, but then he decided against it. Instead he focused on his task and managed to stumble into some kind of portal that transport him to the first demon he had to kill. Funny how demon didn't seem too much of a problem for him to kill. He only lost some of his mana to finish the demon off and saw it vanished in the thin air. Maybe because his magic seemed to be stronger in the fade and it was easier to control than in real life. It must be because he was only a spirit right now. A spirit always easier to control its power in the fade.

"Let's just hope that I didn't accidently feed on pride demon to make them stronger than necessary." Silveras muttered. The young mage always knew he had big ego, ever since the day he managed to destroyed those scientists' lab with high security when he was sixteen (best day of his life), and it certainly didn't stop when he came here. Arrogant he might be, Silveras was no fool. Demon could use human's strong emotion to boost their power and his pride and ego certainly an easy target for them. Therefore, he always KOS demons before they could offer something he could not reject and that worked quite well on him.

"Very well, no more hiding."

The real demon finally appeared when he defeated the last three fake demon. This desire demon used an image of very beautiful girl with firm breast and slim hip. She looked at him with her lusting demonic eyes and said with rather slutty voice:

"I hope to escape your clutch, but it seems rather vain right now." She said "but before we fight, perhaps you will hear my proposal? I promise it doesn't hurt."

"Sorry lady, but I'm not interested in you. I prefer cock and ball, not boob and cunt." Silveras said rather sassily as he charged against the demon.

"Ah, it's too bad." The demon sighed softly, reflected his spell with ease.

She then attacked him furiously, summoned many of shade and fake demon to overwhelmed Silveras while she started using hex and curse to make him more vunlnerable.

_"Remind me why I agree to this again?" _Silveras cursed in his head, quickly jumped out of the fire line. Since he was in the fade, his force magic didn't have any use in illusional body and spirit, so he focused solely on his lightning spell and entropy magic to attack them. It was not as effective as when he used force magic but the boost up power made up everything else. Even so, he still need to use two of lyrium deposit near there to refill his magic.

"You're such an insolent godling." The desire demon said when she was cornered, her beautiful face twisted up into an ugly expression "I'll teach you not to defy me."

Silveras widened his eyes when he saw the desire demon turned into something bigger and stronger. This was not said in the game, the demon was supposed to die. Was that because he was the one who confronted the demon not Surana or any of his companion. But there is no time to devour on that anymore since the demon had already thrown its second attack. Silveras swiftly ducked, and ran out of the creature's reach. He was so not fancy being crushed like Cailan in the game. Twisting his staff, he fired the most powerful spell that he could think of, making a rain of lightning striking down on the demon. It was vain, however, as the creature skin was too thick to actually hurt it. The demon only smiled nastily down at him and caught him by the hand on one move. It peered at his dangling form with its bee-liked eyes and purred:

"I wonder what sort of power I will have when I ate you? A godling, with many potentials for power….it's too bad that I didn't found you earlier, it's such a waste not to process your whole body…nevermind, your soul is enough for me."

Silveras swallowed slightly as the smirking demon, yet he didn't lose hope. He waited, until the demon opened its mouth to eat him alive then he act. With a speed that Silveras never knew he had, the mage threw another tempest spell, right on the demon's mouth. Rain of lightning struck down right inside the demon, tore its flesh off and made its disappeared from the fade. Some of the lightning struck Silveras, made his spirit body fader than before, but Silveras didn't care, he was determined to kill this creature as soon as possible. His mana could not hold him for long.

Suddenly everything was a blurred. Silveras only managed to gasp out the sound of the demon's screaming before he was pulled into another scenario, quite similar to the scenario he had when he had his joining. This time, it was a pair of paws trying to piece some fragments together. Silveras didn't know what those fragments were but he could felt them belong to him. They are the parts of him. The paws that just pieces the fragments together now turned to a mirror, and tenderly pushed them inside. His stomach shrinking slightly when he saw what those paws actually done. They were pushing the fragments inside one of the two babies inside the mirror. And he knew that that baby was he.

"Silveras!"

Silveras snapped his eyes open, making eye contact with the red haired man in front of him. Surana gave him one of his gentle smile and said:

"Glad to see you back. You've done well. Connor's no longer in the demon's clutch."

"Ah…yeah, I killed the demon. Bloody pain in the ass, let me tell you." Silveras said, rather quickly, to try and cover how dazed he looked. The scene he had just seen it, was it a memory? It was too vivid and detailed to be a dream, and he knew that demon could not give him some kind of illusion like that since it had been busy screaming its throat dry. So whatever that vision was, it must have been inside Silveras's memory, … or it was what the fragments had hold inside.

The thing is…if that vision was true, then what was he exactly?

Did he even was from Earth like he was originally thought, or he was just some kind of puppet that god had made to entertain himself?

Never in his life had he felt so lost like this.

Just what was he really?


	12. Chapter 12

"Connor is his old self." Teagan commented when he returned from his nephew's room to the main hall, where everybody was waiting "He does not remember anything, which is a blessing. I suppose we will need to send him to the Circle of Magi's tower for…training. It's so odd to think the boy as a mage, of all things. Eamon has much to mourn and rebuild, should he recover. But at least he can be thankful that both his son and wife are safe."

Silveras certainly was not share Eamon about that feelings. He might share some affection to Connor (seeing he was only the boy who barely passed his tenth birthday) but he certainly would be glad to let Isolde rotted away. That woman had done nothing but irritate him greatly for her insufferable behavior.

"I owe you my deepest thanks." Isolde addressed Surana from her place besides Teagan, pointly ignored Alistair from behind the elf mage "I nearly… I can scarcely believe Connor is the boy he once was."

"Keep believing and it may be true." Silveras muttered in his breathe and smiled innocently at Duncan's stern look.

"There's still the matter of Jowan. His poisoning of Eamon began this whole mess, yet-"

"Do not put the whole blame on Jowan when someone here also have a part of it." Silveras said rather annoyingly.

"What do you mean?" Isolde snapped defensively "That mage was the one who poisoned my husband-"

"Jowan was the one who poisoned your husband, but he wouldn't be able to do so if you didn't hire him to tutor your son just so your son could hide his magic from outsiders and his father. No, lady Isolde, you're the first to blame for the whole thing. Hundreds of people died because of you, your son almost became an abomination because of you and your husband nearly died because of you, don't even think to deny it."

"That's right." Cailan stepped up, looked at Isolde sternly "Lady Isolde, I hereby strip you the Arlessa title. You still remain as arl Eamon's wife as I don't have the right to interfere your family, but you no longer have the power to take charge of Redcliffe when your husband is busy or ill. Instead, bann Teagan will replace your husband until Eamon can take back his position."

"B-But your majesty…" Isolde sputtered.

"You'd better be grateful for his mercy." Mahariel said coldly "otherwise you and your son could have been already death for all your misdeed."

Isolde paled at Mahariel's harsh words, her eyes filled with tears. Teagan looked torn between defending Isolde's honor and agreed to Mahariel's words. Instead, he changed the discussion to something else:

"As much as we have accomplished here, our task is not done yet. Whatever the demon did to my brother, it seems to have spared his life, but he remains comatose. We cannot wake him."

"The urn." Isolde cried "The urn of sacred ash will save Eamon! There's a scholar in Denerim, Brother Genitivi, who has been researching for the urn's location for several years now. The knights that returned said that they were unable to find him, but perhaps the maker will lead you to him."

"This is ridiculous." Mahariel scoffed "The urn is nothing but a myth. Do you really expect us to chase after a miracle that doesn't exist while we had something more important to do? And here I thought you shemlen couldn't be more stupid."

Isolde's eyes turned cold as she turned her attention toward Mahariel. She said rather nastily:

"Just because the Maker lost his favor to you dirty knife ear doesn't mean that he didn't favor us. If you don't want to go, you can crawl back to those filthy knife ear where you come from and let us nobility discuss important situation."

Mahariel's eyes turned red, and that was a pretty dangerous sight as Silveras only knew one thing about Mahariel's red eyes was death and destruction. He almost reached his dagger and stabbed Isolde on the face if it weren't for Cailan holding him tightly. The blond hair murmured gently in the elf's ear while glaring at Isolde at the corner of his eyes:

"Don't mind her. She isn't worth to get your hand dirty."

"Lady Isolde, I recommend you leave right now." Duncan said firmly.

"Excuse me?" Isolde sputtered "This is my home, and you order me to leave?"

"Either you move you useless legs out of here right now or I will throw you out of the window." Silveras glowered "Do not test my patience, Isolde."

Isolde looked fearfully at the sparking light on Silveras's fingers and stomped out of the main hall, snarling at the nearby servants. Teagan sighed at the retreating form of his sister-in-law and turned to the fuming elf in Cailan's arms.

"I'm apologize for her behavior, grey warden. What my sister-in-law said was inexcusable."

"She better hold her tongue from now on or I will cut it off." Mahariel snarled lowly and snapped at Cailan "Release me, you stupid oaf."

Cailan quickly stepped back a few step, raising his hand up. The blond had enough experience about Mahariel's bad mood to know when to stay away from the fuming elf.

"As finding the urn of sacred ash" Surana mused, turned his head toward Silveras "I hope you know its location?"

"Why do you ask me?" Silveras blinked.

"Flemeth said that you know about the future." Surana cocked his head slightly "She told me that if I want advice, I can ask you, but do not pester you with what the future really like, because it will mess up the whole timeline and great consequence will be put upon you."

"You know the future?" Surana's companion except Alistair and Morrigan (who probably in the same place with Flemeth and Surana when they discussed this) and Teagan both exclaimed, stared at Silveras with wide eyes. Even Sten couldn't help but be intrigue at the mage in front of him.

"Yes, I know the future, but now I'm not so sure about the accurate of it anymore, because I have already change some of events." Silveras said truthfully. The things about meeting Zevran and almost died inside the fade were really catching him off-guard and make him more carefully about messing with the time. Maker knows what would happen if everything sprang out of his calculation.

"Such as?" Alistair asked curiously.

"Saving your brother and Duncan." Silveras said, ignored Alistair's surprise "ordering Fergus Cousland to retaken his castle and start a campaign against Loghain, things like that."

"Fergus is alive?" Teagan asked in surprised "I thought that the Cousland's line died out when the attack in Highever happened and Ostagar was lost. It's good to see that one of Bryce's children still alive."

"Perhaps you should contact Fergus." Cailan said thoughtfully "Help him retaken Highever. Fergus was in disadvantage in number of militia right now. Your reinforcement will reduce his lost, enough to rebuild Highever and prepare his own army ready to fight for the blight and the civil war which hopefully not going to happen. With you two working together, Loghain will feel threaten enough to focus on maintaining the balance of the civil war. This will take that man off our back until we find a way to recover Eamon and gain allies for the Blight."

"Good plan." Surana nodded, impressed. The elf mage must have thought that Cailan was nothing but a glory seeking oaf the first time they met, or at least not a strategist since no strategist be really that stupid to be at the frontline in the battle while he had a heavy duty for the kingdom on his shoulder.

"I'll go for it now, your majesty." Teagan bowed "If you want anything else, feel free to call the servants."

With Teagan out of the room, Duncan returned his attention to Silveras and said:

"Now, about the urn of sacred ash, do you know where it is?"

"No." Silveras said and blanched at the disbelief look on Cailan and Alistair's faces "What? I really don't know. It's not like that damn stone board write a bloody right direction to that urn. All I know that it was somewhere in Frostback mountain."

"Frostback mountain…" Surana furrowed his eyebrow "Isn't it where the dwarfs live?"

"Far from it." Silveras shook his head "It's in a secluded village near Redcliffe, but I don't know exactly where. Brother Genitivi had the map of it, however, so we still need to see him in Denerim."

"If I may say…" Mahariel began hesitantly "If I remember correctly, we still need an aid from the Dalish, and I know that there is another Dalish clan camped near Denerim, right in Brecilian forest… Perhaps we could stop by and gain their aid while we go and find the urn?"

Mahariel tried not to sound so hopeful at the prospect seeing his race again, but the eyes gave it all away. He stared at Cailan and Duncan with his wide doe eyes, and his lip pressed tightly together as if trying to stop a little pout from appearing on his face. The sight was almost comical and horrified that made Cailan and Alistair choked, the later was horrified that the monster elf could actually show that cute little face of his while the earlier perhaps was tried desperately to stop his growing hormone

"We can do that." Surana cocked his head "There's no reason why we should return to Brecilian forest later when we could have done that when we try to reach Denerim. Besides, the Dalish was well-known for their never staying in one place long, so we should reach them as soon as possible, or they may have already gone."

"True." Duncan nodded "We will stop by the Dalish when we go to Denerim. I will tell Teagan to prepare for us some supply for the journey."

"Tell him to give the supply to Bodahn." Surana said, and explained at the Duncan's confused look "He's a merchant who agrees to serve us during our journey to fight against the blight. He will store our supply and other things in his cart."

"Now that's being say, I suggest we should take a rest." Silveras said, rubbing his shoulder "I refuse to do anything tomorrow if I don't have a good rest tonight."

"True, I need to change my cloth anyway. Two days without bath make me smell really bad." Leliana scrunched her nose "Wynne, do you want to go with me?"

"In a minute, dear. I still have a talk to this young man over there." Wynne said, glared slightly at Jowan, who in turned shrank at her look.

"She was Jowan's mentor when they were in the Circle." Surana explained at Silveras's confused look.

"Ah." That's all Silveras said.

Morrigan and Sten also went to their own way while Mahariel and Zevran, after a slightly debate at each other's skill, want to spar in the training room. Hopefully they would leave the room undestroyed when they finished sparring. Cailan had already dragged Alistair back to Eamon's study, despite the blond … err… almost Templar's feeble protest. Now there was only Surana and Silveras stood in the main hall, looking at each other like idiots.

"Silveras, can you teach me your magic?" Surana suddenly asked.

"Excuse me?" Silveras blinked "Why do you ask me to teach you magic? You obviously are more trained than me."

"I may have been trained by the Circle but there is some magic I still don't know about. Morrigan's shapeshifter magic and your summoning magic are example."

"Summoning magic, you mean this?" Silveras said amusedly, lift the furniture up from afar with ease.

"Yeah, this." Surana said, watched the floating furniture in with fascination "I've never seen it before. How do you do that?"

"It's call gravity, or you can call force magic" Silveras said, remembered this branched of magic in dragon age II. He wondered just what was Hawke's specialty was, seeing he was an apostate (he would have joined Carver in Ostagar if he was a warrior or rogue)

"Can you teach me?" Surana asked with wide doe eyes "Morrigan refused to teach me her shapeshifter magic, saying that her mother would be very furious."

"Hmm, how about this?" Silveras tapped his chin "I'll teach you how to do this while you teach me healing spells."

"Agree." Surana said eargerly, pulled Silveras with his small delicate hand "Come on, we need somewhere large enough to practice."

Silveras chuckled lightly, followed the over-eager Surana outside the castle.

On the other hand, Cailan and Alistair was having a heart-to-heart conversation for the first time in Eamon's study.

"Sit down." Cailan said, indicated an armchair in front of the desk "your legs must be stiff after standing all day. Do you want some drink? Eamon often has a secret stash of Antiva brandy somewhere in the study."

"Err-no, thank you." Alistair said uncomfortably "Your majesty, I think I should go, Duncan obviously needs my assistant…"

"You'll stay here, that's the king's order." Cailan said firmly "Sit down."

Alistair scowled at the command voice, petulantly sat the pointed armchair, muttered insults under his breathe about Cailan. The blond king pretended he didn't hear it, instead trying to find Eamon's secret stash of wine and brandy, smiled in triumph when he found them behind the bookcase. He poured two glasses and gave one to Alistair, said lightly:

"Drink. Our father would really hate to waste such a fine brandy like that."

Alistair stiffened at the word 'father', chose to look the red water instead of drinking it. Cailan rolled his eyes at his stubbornness, and gulped down his drink. He looked at Alistair, inspected his little brother's appearance. Alistair looked older than before, giving the fact that he was constantly living in danger and threat lately. The stubble on his jaw certainly didn't help him look any younger. Cailan didn't understand why Alistair insisted on leaving those stubble on his face, he knew he and their father Maric would shave it when they saw it.

"Why do you do this?" Alistair suddenly blurred out.

"Do what?"

"This." Alistair waved his hand widely "treating me as if we're family."

"We're family." Cailan said, slightly hurt "We share the same blood."

"Well, you certainly didn't act like that before." Alistair retorted "If you want to persuade me not getting the throne, well let me tell you that arl Eamon had made sure that I'm not royalty but a commoner, I have no claim toward the throne, I don't even intend to let everyone know that I'm your brother, so don't worry about me stealing the throne…"

"Alistair, stop, I do not talk about the throne or the freaking king duty of Ferelden." Cailan said desperately "I know you're bitter about me and our father for abandoning you, but please let me have a chance to explain ourselves."

Alistair inhaled a deep breath and said:

"I don't know what the point for it but if you want then I won't stop you."

"Thank you." Cailan smiled tentatively, then sighed "what do you know about your mother?"

"My mother?" Alistair asked, surprised "All I know is about she was a maid in the castle and died when giving birth to me."

"I don't know about being a maid in the castle but I do know that your mother didn't die when she gave birth to you." Cailan said, and explained when he saw a disbelief look on Alistair's face "It's true. I found her letter to our father when I was young. This was when I know that I have brothers."

"Are you saying that my mum still alive?" Alistair said, trying and failing not to be so hopeful at the prospect.

"I don't know." Cailan shook his head "That was the only letter she gave to our father. I remembered he locked himself inside his bedroom for three days, never coming out once."

"So…what did the letter say?"

"It said…" Cailan hesitated "It said that your twin was kidnapped."

Alistair stared at Cailan, stunned at the reveal. He sputtered:

"I…what? A twin? As in brother? As someone with the same face with me?"

"Or a girl version of you but wearing a dress and put make up on." Cailan tried to joke and failed miserably.

"Maker breathe, I have a twin." Alistair said in disbelief but then snapped out of it "You said my twin was kidnapped?"

"That's what your mother said. She said that she could not effort losing you like your twin so she gave him to our father and forced him to swear that he would never publicly recognize you as his son. I believe her exact word is "I want him to be fully human and not in line for your throne, not competing with your other son and tied to this royal blood that has brought you nothing but grief.""

Alistair sucked a breath when he heard Cailan's word. He didn' know why, but he could feel his shoulder was significantly lighter than before, as if some weight had been lift from his shoulder. He could not change his years of resentment just because of Cailan's saying so, but at least he could live with the knowledge that he wasn't thoughtlessly abandoned, or kidnapped like his twin. But then, Alistair immediately froze when he remembered Surana's word yesterday:

_"As much as I love to, this bond is a natural one, only soul mates or twin can have that, so I cannot break it for you two, unless you want to have your brain severely damaged."_

Silveras was having a good time.

They were on the ground near the dock which was private enough so that he and Surana could trade each other magic without being interrupted and he was awed at how powerful Surana was. Sure, the elf had a knack in healing magic, but he also had a talent in primal magic. His trick in doing lightning and ice made Silveras slightly jealous.

"I can't do this." Surana pouted slightly, trying and failing to bring the stone up to the air. The elf mage had been practicing Silveras's force magic for three hours and he still couldn't gasp the basic of the spell.

"I'm not surprised." Silveras shrugged "I have been practicing this kind of magic since I was six, it becomes second natural now."

"Didn't you say that you're only know that you're a mage barely three months ago?" Surana raised his eyebrow.

"You must be misheard." Silveras said innocently "I said that I was called an apostate barely three months ago but I knew how to do magic from as long as I can remember."

"And you don't know that you were a mage back then?"

"Ah, back to when I was naïve and foolish." Silveras sighed, mocked wept away his tears "Good time."

"You're impossible." Surana rolled his eyes "You're so much like Alistair that I don't even have a single doubt that you two are twin."

"I'm not his twin." Silveras sniffed haughtily "He looks nothing like me at all. I'm more handsome than him."

"See, your ego even the same as him." Surana looked pointedly at Silveras, his lips curled up into a smile.

"Quite right. Perhaps I can do something to deflate his big head a little bit." A sly voice appeared right behind him and before Silveras could do anything, he was kicked into the lake.

The cold water made Silveras starled and he waved, rather madly, until his face was out of the water (thank the maker that his armor was leather, not chainmail like Alistair). He glared, rather furiously at the two laughing rogue standing at the dried land and equally amused Surana.

"Theron, what's it for?" Silveras shouted.

"As I say, you need to get your head cooled down before your head explore for all of your ego." Mahariel smirked, his eyes glinted mischievously "Beside, I've not taken my revenge for letting me worry for five days."

"Ah, then I shall indulge you with my own revenge for worrying me back when you attacked Flemeth." Silveras retorted, and yanked both Mahariel and Zevran's ankle down to the water with him. The two elf sputtered and coughed lightly when they were suddenly wet like drown rats.

"My dear Warden, if you need to see me wet so that you can ogle my frame, all you have to do is ask." Zevran chided, wiped up his wet band "No need to get violent."

"Despite your self-claim, you're not that pretty Zevran." Silveras said drily (okay he lied, but he was not that stupid to fall into Zevran's flirtatious nature). Mahariel for once didn't seem angry, he was chuckling the whole time.

"If you three quite done being children." Surana said softly "I have some towers so that you can dry off and get back to the castle. I doubt Isolde would appreciate if you three make a mess on her precious floor."

"Thank you, Jayde." Silveras said "Though I don't mind seeing Isolde's fuming face, it's bloody freezing out here."

"And you dragged us down." Zevran muttered, a pout started to form on his face.

"Serve you right for kicking me into the water." Silveras said, used the towers to dry his wet hair. Surana was kind enough to form a little fire on his hand so that the three wet rats could huddle around the elf mage for warmth and dry off.

"Ugh." Silveras looked down at his torn armor, which was tear by the sign nearby when he fell into the water "I need to but another set of this…on second thought, I prefer to have my own armor made than wearing these custom armor."

"What's wrong with the armor?" Mahariel asked curiously "I think it serve you well."

"Well, at least you can stick with robe now." Surana said "I was surprised you chose that armor back to Ostagar."

"Ha, as much as I look quite fetching in skirt and dress." Silveras said drily "I don't want to freeze my ball whenever I go somewhere cold."

"Well, I could remedy that if you like." Zevran said slyly. "I'm rather skilled in warming people up."

"You're such a whore, Zevran." Mahariel rolled his eyes at the Crow "I know you're smitten with Silveras but there's no need to flirt with him instantly."

"Well, even you couldn't deny that he was good looking." Zevran wiggled his eyebrow.

"I don't know, I certainly prefer more muscle than his lanky frame." Surana teased lightly.

"Right, I feel really awkward right now so I will simply be a deaf guy and return to the castle." Silveras said, blushing lightly at the three elf's comment on his appearance. Those little minxes actually laughed at his comment and continued to torture Silveras with tease. They were lucky that they were cute, otherwise Silveras would have hang them by the ankle.

As expect, Isolde was disgusted when she saw their wretch forms. She sniffed distastefully and shut herself inside her room, letting no one but Teagan came inside. Silveras couldn't help but think that woman will be trouble, seeing how she freed the knight that responsible for his kidnap, saying that he thought he had done his duty for the chantry. He hadn't given much thought about the chantry before because he knew there are good people inside the chantry and they just did something they thought was right, but if this prejudge continued to happened, he would happy to see it burn down and not even bother to stop Ander-Justice. He would even help Ander escape and continued to spread his justice for all mage in Thedas.

Wynne and Jowan found them next after Isolde. The older woman just shook her head fondly and gently chided them for being childish while Surana sneaked out with Jowan, probably catching up with each other after three months separate to each other. Duncan found all four of them when he was passing by and snorted amusedly at the guilty looked on Silveras and Mahariel's face when they were scolded for being childish. It was a rare sight to see. Zevran didn't look guilty at all, instead flirted with Wynne shamelessly about her magical bosom made the old woman threw her hands into the air in irritation and resignation.

"Maker, what did you do to her that makes her so frustrated?" Alistair said in bewilderment when he passed the irritated woman and went inside the living room "And why are you all wet?"

"Oh, we're just having fun by the dock." Silveras waved his hand "It's so much fun, including being wet like a drown rat and having two handsome little devils accompany you."

"I heard sarcasm in there, you know." Alistair noted with a smile, looked at Silveras carefully. This look was so much like Cailan's when he first saw Silveras back to castle that made Silveras narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him.

"I see you had a heart-to-heart talk with your dear brother. How's it going?" Silveras asked lightly, still looked at Alistair suspiciously.

"Terrible and awkward." Alistair said truthfully, rubbed his face "That's all I can say. Maker know why I let him trying to get me drunk when it's not even night yet."

"Where is that blond monkey now?" Mahariel asked.

"Eh, he's still in the study." Alistair said uncertainly, and stared at Mahariel as the elf passed him to find the blond king "I take that he's close to Cailan then?"

"Close is the understatement." Silveras snorted, and Zevran smirked at the oblivious look on Alistair's face.

"Is there something I didn't know about?" Alistair raised his eyebrow, and quickly lamented when he saw mischievous looks that Silveras and Zevran had "on second thought, don't tell me. I cannot take being traumatized for life."

"Anyway, I think I and Zevran should change clothe before we catch a cold. Maker know Duncan would have chew our heads off if I'm the cause that we delay our journey." Silveras said.

"Do you need a hand, my dear warden? I promise I'll be gentle." Zevran suggested slyly.

Silveras rolled his eyes, choosing to go back to his room instead of answering. Zevran had been flirting with him since the day they first met and now Silveras knew how Wynne and other companion felt when they traveled with this flirtatious elf. Being flirted continuously when you knew that he was not even serious about his offering was kind of annoying. Despite that, the elf was a great friend even if they had only known each other for three days at most. Silveras and Zevran could talk for hours without stopping about everything, much to Alistair's chargin. It certainly helped when Silveras knew a certain conversation that he once had in the game.

Dinner was quite an interesting sight. With so many people with different attitudes, it was a wonder that supper didn't turn out to be disastrous yet. Silveras may have Duncan and Wynne to thank for that. The two adults certainly were lifesavers in keeping their companies in line. Or perhaps that there were a lot of people here respected Surana too much to misbehave when the young elf gently reprimand them. At least, Silveras haven't see Zevran did anything to make Alistair strangle him yet, and Mahariel was certainly enjoyed his conversation with Cailan. Even Morrigan managed to keep her snide comments to herself and having a civil conversation with Jowan and Wynne. Sten was quiet as usual, but the mage could see he was content with the meal, as Surana had especially ordered the servants bring some cookies to the qunari as dessert.

"You look quite deep in thought, amigo, is something trouble?" Zevran said softly at the left of him.

"Hmm? Oh nothing, I'm just enjoy the moment when it lasts." Silveras answered off-handedly.

"You sound old saying something like that. It's not suit your pretty face, you know." Zevran quipped, raised his eyebrow slightly.

"You do know that you would also compliment Alistair's face when you do that, right? After all, my face is just like him."

"And why not? He's a handsome man, after all." Zevran said, stared luridly at Alistair for a moment then returned his look to him "but despite popular belief, you don't look quite the same as Alistair."

"Oh, how so?"

"Hmm, first thing first, your face is not as round as him, your jaw is thinner than him." Zevran said, inspected Silveras's face closely "Your eyes was sharper than him, and your aura is certainly darker than him."

"Aura?" Silveras asked, interested. He never knew that Zevran had this ability.

"As a Crow, I've learned to read other aura so that I can distinguish my enemies and allies. It's quite a useful skill to have. For example, your aura is grey while Surana and Alistair are pure white" Zevran said, looked quite smug that he had something that Silveras didn't know. "I guess your ability didn't inform you that, my dear warden?"

"Don't be so cheeky to me." Silveras said annoyedly, swatted his shoulder lightly. "You're lucky you're cute, or I won't be so mercy at you."

"Ooh, so you do admit you're attracted at my puppy eyes and pouty lips." Zevran said smugly "and here I thought you don't take interest in innuendo."

"Please, if I really want to like someone, I would have chosen Jayde." Silveras said, pointed at the smiling Surana across his table.

"True, but I'm sure that your self-claim brother had already glued himself to Surana, am I right?" Zevran said, watching Alistair looked at Surana with such adoration. "like a big mabari around his master."

"Yeah, at least they are a good couple." Silveras said, seeing Surana pulled Alistair somewhere outside, an amulet clutch tightly at the elf mage. It made him remembered. He had something that he traded to Surana in exchange with that amulet. The mage fisted out of his pocket, and put a small bar of gold in front of Zevran. "It's for you."

"What's this?' Zevran stared at the small bar of gold. The elf knew that it was not a gold-color bar, but a pure gold, which could bring a fortune. But he didn't understand. This would help the blight a lot of deal when buying equipment and supply. Why would Silveras give him this?

"You don't seem very happy. I thought you like gold?" Silveras cocked his head, looked at Zevran in concern.

"I….no, I like it. Thank you, warden." Zevran finally said, ran his hand over the smooth surface on the gold bar.

"Good." Silveras smiled, a smile that Zevran had been attracted since the first time they met. "I hope you like it. I know that you risk a great deal when you agreed to help us so I give you this as a fees we own you for getting you in such trouble. And don't worry about the crow. I swear I will help you cut ties of them, even if my companions don't approve of it."

Zevran's throat tightened. He never knew that Silveras would trust him this much. Not many people would trust a crow, much less a backstabbing one like him. He searched Silveras's face to find any kind of malice or cruel joke but all he saw was a sincere eyes and warm smile. He could feel his breath going quicker and his heart beating faster.

"Thank you again, grey warden, for giving me this. Now, I will take this little treasure upstair and admire it while I still can. Perhaps I will later see you and express my gratitude by giving you one of my many, many services?" Zevran said forcedly, smiled tightly at Silveras. Thankfully the mage was obvious enough not to notice his pink ears or it would become trouble.

"Ha, I will see how you can charm your way into my bed." Silveras smirked, watching Zevran go with fond eyes.

_"You're a cruel man after all, my Warden."_ Zevran thought as he returned to his room, the small bar of gold clutched firmly on his hand _"Messing with my feeling like that."_

**To be continue...**

**jukebox56: I thank you for your review and apology for such a late update but I was having a very trying weeks with tests and exams so that I cannot post as frequently as before, not until summer time anyway. I will try to post the new chapter as soon as able.**


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